Indian shooters have a chance to sing their redemption song at the Paris : Vijay Kumar

Kula Pradip Bhagawati

For India to have a realistic chance of surpassing their Tokyo Olympics tally of seven in Paris, the 21-member shooting contingent will have to play a prime part. With the previous two Olympics drawing blanks for the sport, the Paris Games will have to be a salvation of sorts, for a sport which has given the nation as many as four individual medals, a feat surpassed only by Wrestling.

It will be relatively easy to exorcise the ghosts of the past Games one would imagine, given the almost 300km distance of Chateauroux-a tiny French city of under 50,000 people, from Paris, where the Games’ Shooting competition will be held.

Indian shooters have a chance to sing their redemption song at the Paris : Vijay Kumar — Vijay Kumar

This has also prompted a change in the event format, where the individual event finals will be held a day following the qualification round and India’s depth, particularly in rifle and pistol, might come to the fore given the need for adjustments.

“We have a lot of quality and depth, particularly in the women’s and men’s rifle events with as many as three Olympians in the fray and scores over a long time being pretty consistent. In-fact it will also help that the first event will be the mixed rifle events which will help them perform even better in the individual events,” concurred Vijay Kumar Sharma, an Indian sport shooter who won the silver medal in the individual 25 metre rapid fire pistol event at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Elavenil Valarivan in the women’s 10m air rifle, Anjum Moudgil and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar in the women’s and men’s 50m rifle 3 positions (3p) will be the three Olympians in the rifle events along with the likes of the seasoned Swapnil Kusale and Arjun Babuta, the in-form Sandeep Sing and women’s 3p world record holder Sift Kaur Samra rounding off a strong squad.

Manu Bhaker undoubtedly will be the chief hope among the Pistol shooters and with the experienced Olympian at 22, yet again starting in three of the 15 Shooting events on schedule, a first Olympic medal in her second Olympics is not beyond her. In a recent interview Manu reiterated her resolve stating “hum khane-peenenahijarahehai, we are going there for a purpose,” indicating that the past is well and truly behind her.

Shotgun has traditionally been India’s weakest of the three Shooting disciplines at the Olympics and at the global stage as well although some of the biggest medals have come at the Shotgun ranges for India. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore’s silver in Athens and Manavjit Sandhu’s world championship win undoubtedly standing out among them.

In these Olympics, while India have qualified a record five athletes in the Shotgun events of Trap and Skeet respectively, Anant Jeet Singh Naruka in the men’s skeet looks favourite to medal among them on recent form and achievements, like the stunning Asian Games silver won in a dog-fight with Kuwaiti legend Abdullah Al-Rashidi.

“I will not be surprised if we make up for the previous years with multiple medals at the Paris Games in Shooting,” signed off Vijay Kumar, alluding to the fact that the first medal will propel others with quality to peform.

India’s Olympic medals in shooting over the years

21 Indian shooters will be taking part amongst the 117-member contingent that will be heading for the Paris Olympics 2024. In the history of the mega tournament, India has bagged four medals in shooting so far. Army man Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore made headlines in 2004 when he became the first Indian to win an Olympics individual silver medal post-independence.

The shotgun shooter from Jaipur had already made a name for himself heading into the Athens Games, having won the gold medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and followed it with a bronze at the 2003 World Championships.

In Athens, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore did not have the best of starts in the double-trap event, finishing the qualifier in the fifth position. However, he was able to make the final cut since he was in the top six led by the UAE’s Ahmed Al Maktoum. In the final, Ahmed Al Maktoum maintained his lead to clinch the gold medal with ease but there was a tough competition for second place. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore overcame a stiff challenge from China’s Wang Zheng to clinch the silver medal and etched his name in the history books.

After Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore’s success at the previous Games, hopes were high from the Indian shooting contingent, especially Abhinav Bindra. The Dehradun-born Abhinav had set an Olympic record in the qualification round at the Athens Olympics but could not sustain his form in the final. Four years later, Abhinav Bindra was all set to take another shot at glory.

The Indian shooter finished fourth in the qualifying round but blazed through in the final to tie with Henri Hakkinen from Finland with one shot remaining. In the final attempt, Abhinav Bindra shot an almost-perfect 10.8 to bag the gold medal as Hakkinen managed only 9.7. It was India’s first-ever individual Olympic gold and remained the only one till Neeraj Chopra joined the exclusive club at Tokyo 2020.

After a disappointing outing at the Beijing Olympics, Gagan Narang gave a fine performance in London to sail into the final while defending champion Abhinav Bindra exited in the qualification round. In the final at the Royal Artillery Barracks, Gagan Narang continued his splendid run by consistently shooting in the 10s and ended with 701.1 to claim the bronze medal – India’s first medal at the London Olympics.

Eight years after Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won the silver medal in Athens, another army man Vijay Kumar claimed India’s second silver in shooting. This time in a rifle event. A Subedar in the Indian army, Vijay Kumar headed to London as the Commonwealth Games champion and qualified for the final rounds in fourth position.

Since the new shooting rules did not carry the qualification scores in the final, Vijay Kumar had the opportunity to start afresh and advance. As other shooters kept dropping out in the eliminations, Vijay Kumar shot brilliantly to move ahead till the final two remained. However, Cuba’s Leuris Pupo had already taken a comfortable lead heading into the final shot and the Indian rifle shooter ended in second place for a silver.

Writer Kula Pradip With Vijay Kumar (File pic)

KULAPRADIP BHAGAWATI WAS THE FIRST JOURNALIST FROM THE NORTHEAST WHO COVERED THE THREE BIG SPORTS EVENT LIKE OLYMPIC (2012 ,London), FIFA WORLD CUP (2014, Brazil) AND CRICKET WORLD CUP (2011, 2012, 2012, 2016, 2023).

23-07-2024

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