India’s shooters bring big disappointment in Olympics

New Delhi: On 2 August, Indian Olympic shooters Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Sanjeev Rajput finished 21st and 32nd respectively in the Men’s 50m rifle 3 positions at the Asaka Shooting Range in Tokyo, bringing an end to any dream of Olympic glory. Tomar and Rajput had been the last members of the Indian shooting contingent still in the competition, after the rest of the squad failed to progress to any further rounds.
While less funded sports like wrestling, boxing, badminton, javelin and hockey have seen successes and ensured that Indian sportspersons were not a complete write-off in the Olympics, the biggest disappointment have been the shooters.
After the Rio Olympics, the Sports Ministry decided to revamp its programmes, and spent Rs 1169.65 crore on Japan–bound athletes. A large percentage of this amount was invested in shooting, as a top medal hope for India. Shooting is a very expensive sport as it requires the import of special equipment from overseas. Indian sports have always been plagued with a lack of adequate funds, lack of top-quality coaches and lack of state-of-the-art infrastructure. But, this time, the blame cannot be passed on to the lack of anything, but failure to perform.
After the 2016 Rio Olympics, India spent Rs 36.85 crore towards providing financial assistance to potential Olympic medalists through the TOP scheme. The Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOP Scheme or TOPS) is a flagship athlete-centric programme of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to provide assistance to India’s top athletes in their preparations for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Shooting was allocated almost half the total amount, being India’s most successful category in three Olympics held in England (2012), China (2008) and Greece (2004). But 2016 Rio and 2021 Tokyo proved disastrous for Indian shooters.
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), which faced a lot of criticism after the Rio Olympics, appointed a four-member committee led by former Gold medalist Abhinav Bindra to take a close look at the performances and suggest changes in selection and training to compete with the world. A series of successes followed at the interim international sporting events, which raised hopes that the shooters would bring back at least a couple of medals from Tokyo. But this was not to be.
The Indian contingent consisted of a record 15 shooters at the Tokyo Games. The team had eight rifle shooters, five pistol shooters, and two skeet shooters, as well as coaches and other members of the support staff. Containing three teenagers and three veterans in their forties, the Indian contingent boasted an average age of 28. Out of the 15 members, only four had competed in previous editions of the Olympics, raising some concerns which were immediately quashed by the exploits of the youngsters on the international stage running up to the Olympics.
Prior to the Tokyo Olympics, the Indian contingent had moved their base camp to Zagreb, Croatia on 11 May where it was considered safer for them to train as India was still in the midst of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. During their stay in Croatia, the Indian shooters trained alongside the Croatian national team and had taken part in the European Championships from 29 May to 6 June, and in the World Cup from 22 June to 3 July, both events in which they garnered a number of medals.
Many blamed the squad’s inexperience and inability to perform under pressure as the main reasons for another abysmal Olympic performance. The pistol coach, Pavel Smirnov—who coached shooter Vijay Kumar to a medal winning second-place finish in the 2012 London Olympics—was also not allowed to accompany the Indian contingent due to the support staff being limited to seven members, which put more of the blame on the Sport’s Authority of India for mismanaging the team. Another factor for the lack of silverware is the inexplicable absence of Chinky Yadav, the top ranked pistol shooter in the world. She was dropped from the contingent without adequate reason and was replaced by Anjum Moudgil.
To make matters worse, the Indian team faced many unforeseeable issues. The air-conditioning system at the shooting range was dysfunctional for the first two days of practice, and while it was being restored, the Indian side fizzled out of the air pistol and air rifle events over the weekend. The rifle teams, including Apurvi Chandela and Elavenil Valarivan, who had events from the first day itself, were not allowed to practice for more than 20-30 minutes, due to some confusion over the distribution of time slots. “This was due to some issue over time slots as athletes from all competing nations train at the same venue,” said a representative of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).
Further heartbreak grappled Indians as 19-year-old Manu Bhakar, one of the country’s strongest prospects for the 10m air pistol event, had to stop mid-competition to replace parts of her gun which had stopped functioning. According to coach Ronak Pandit, this was a “never-seen-before scenario”. The lever used to load pellets into the gun prior to each shot had malfunctioned. “The lever is a metal piece, and it rarely ever breaks. I’ve never heard of something like this happening,” Pandit said. While replacing the piece, Bhakar lost precious time, and when she returned to her position, only 36 minutes were left for the remaining 44 shots. Despite putting on a brave performance, she missed out on qualifying for the final round by 2 points, gaining only 8 points on her last shot when she needed 10. To become an Olympian, sportspersons trust their coaches and train under them. While many had private coaches, the government appointed coaches too. Many athletes, not wanting to be named, blamed the conflicting advice given by the coaches appointed by the government as well as their own private coaches for their failure to perform.
Blame also rested on the lack of support staff allowed on the contingent. “There was a psychologist, physio and all the coaching staff in Croatia,” said Raninder Singh, the president of the National Rifle Association. “It was not possible to get everyone to Tokyo because of Covid restrictions.” He furthered stated, “The performances have not been on expected lines, and I have spoken of an overhaul of coaching and support staff. I feel something is lacking in getting our shooters prepared for these big occasions, because clearly the talent is there, and we have seen it here as well. I am consciously aware that I have done everything that is humanly possible. That’s why I feel a little less responsible this time. But it’s my team,” he said. Judging by their past records, this batch cannot be ruled out just yet, says rifle coach Suma Shirur. “They are a resilient bunch. I trust them to get up and get ready to compete again.”