For Indian shooting, it’s the end of an era

Almost unnoticed, an era has slipped away. The Indian shooting squad for the Olympics was announced yesterday and it didn’t have a single woman shooter in the women’s 10m air rifle category. The reason I am drawing your attention to this particular event is simply because for India’s current generation of shooters, the 10m air rifle event was where it all started. Who can forget the heroics of the Anjali Vedpathak (now Anjali Vedpathak-Bhagwat) during the Sydney Olympics where she became the first Indian shooter to make it to the final of a shooting event. She eventually finished 8th in the event but her performance showed that India could compete at the highest level. For almost a decade when shooting was finding its feet as a sport in this country, Anjali was the sports undisputed ambassador and the women’s 10m air rifle was the one event Indian fans would swamp to, at multi-discipline events. [caption id=“attachment_219043” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Anjali Bhawat won the gold in the women’s 10m air rifle singles shooting competition at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Reuters”]  [/caption] The success of Anjali, Suma Shirur and Deepali Deshpande inspired many young girls pick up the rifle; to make a career in a sport that was for years restricted to only the armed forces and was being looked as India’s ticket to Olympic and World glory. The 10m air rifle event gave India its first Olympic gold in Beijing four years ago when Abhinav Bindra created history, but despite the growing competition at the national level, India has failed to win a single quota place in the women’s 10m air rifle for the London Games. But even if that happens, the real question is whether the National Rifle Association of India is paying the price of not grooming the second string well and relying on the longevity of the first generation shooters. It’s like the Indian cricket team all over again. Great seniors have been around for too long. A shooter’s career can span over three or four decades and hence the federation was depended on the likes of Anjali and Suma Shirur in major meets, both of whom represented India in the Beijing Olympics. However, after the 2008 Games, Anjali decided to take a break to start a family and Suma was not at her best. The lack of depth was first evident in the 2010 Commonwealth Games when Suma and Kavita Yadav failed to retain the 10m air rifle pairs gold and had to settle for a bronze. Since then, the Indian shooters have failed to finish on the podium in any World Cup or Asian championship, which could have guaranteed a quota for London. The situation is all the more surprising since India does not lack the talent or the numbers required to groom champions. Ever since Anjali became the ‘Champions of Champion’ in 2002, many girls in Maharashtra took up air rifle and there are many rifle clubs across the country where girls as young as 10 are aiming to become the next Anjali. Apart for the easy accessibility, the relatively less cost of equipment and pellets, as compared to shotgun or .22 events, has made Air Rifle events more popular in the country. But that has also been the case also in most other countries and that meant the international competition has been getting stiffer with the difference between winning a medal and missing out on a final berth often depending on a count-back rather than actual points. And it is precisely where the lack of experience of the Indian second string has proved to be their biggest handicap. With 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medallists Tejaswini Sawant and Avneet Kaur Sidhu struggling the Indian challenge has been shouldered by the likes of 15-year-old Mampi Das, 19-year-old Ayonika Paul and 17-year-old Sriyanka Sarangi. All the three have been performing consistently on the international circuit but have been found wanting on the mental toughness front on crunch situations. Even in the Asian Shooting championship, which was the last qualifying event, Anjali and Ayonika failed to make it to the finals on count-back having scored an identical 396 out of 400 along with seven others, four of whom made it to the finals. Mampi was a point behind and finished 12th overall. Even the NRAI officials and coaches know that the competition at the international level would only increase by the time India gears up for the 2016 Games with more Asian and African countries concentrating on air rifle and air gun events. But they can have a head start over the other by properly planning the exposure and competition schedule since the qualification for the next edition will start with the first World Cup next year.