The Hindu : Sport / Shooting : Race on for Olympic berths

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 29, 2005

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Sport - Shooting

Race on for Olympic berths

Sports Reporter

NEW DELHI: In the backdrop of soaring expectations, the dry run, so far, in the three World Cup shooting tournaments this year is something that's nagging the fraternity.

Though there is still a long way to go for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the race has already begun to win the Olympic berths. And, the Indian shooters have yet to come anyway closer to clinch the first quota place for the country.

"The competition has obviously become much tougher than it used to be in the past. Add to that, the shooters from China are swarming up in every finals in the race to pick up the Olympic quota berths," said the Chief National coach, Prof. Sunny Thomas.

Anjali stays away

With Anjali Bhagwat preferring to stay away from competitions on medical advice, as does Suma Shirur, who is expecting her second child, the Indian shooting team wears a shallow look. Anjali had taken a conscious decision to skip the season-opening Changwon World Cup in Korea, and now she pulled out at the eleventh hour from the European World Cups.

A 15-member team, eight men and seven women, will represent India at the back-to-back World Cups for the rifle and pistol events in Europe.

For the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), the only heartening news is that the Ministry of Sports has cleared the team well in time for it to go ahead with the other formalities.

Shooters had to give a miss to the Fort Benning World Cup as the Sports Ministry refused to clear a few names, especially those who were listed as coaches.

The NRAI eventually gave up the idea of going to the United States. Abhinav Bindra and Ronak Pandit represented India in Fort Benning, but on personal expenses and their performances were anything but to write about.

"It is time that we start inching closer to the Olympic quota berth though the task is more difficult this year," said Prof. Thomas. The best scenario for the Indian shooting would be that at least two marksmen clinch quota places this year before the 2006 World Championship comes along where six quota places in each event will be on offer.

"Though World Championship, in a sense, is a tougher competition than Olympics, there could be a real chance for our shooters to make the quota as by then most of the top shooters would have anyway made it," said Prof. Thomas.

The Indian team leaves the capital on June 3 for the World Cups in Munich (June 6-13) and Milan (June 13-20).

The team: Men: 10m air rifle: Abhinav Bindra (50m rifle 3-position and 50m rifle prone), Manoj Kumar (50m rifle 3-position) and Gagan Narang.

10m air pistol: Samresh Jung and Ronak Pandit (50m free pistol), and Vijay Kumar (25m rapid fire pistol).

50m pistol: Deepak Sharma (10m air pistol MQS).

25m rapid fire pistol: Jaspal Rana and Pemba Tamang.

Women: 10m air rifle: Deepali Deshpande and Meena Kumari (50m 3-position), and Pournima Chinmoy Zanane. Tejaswini Sawant (MQS).

25m air pistol: Shweta Chaudhary and Saroja Kumari Juthu (10m air pistol), and Sushma Rana.

10m air pistol: Harveen Sarao. Sushma Rana and Minerva Singh (both MQS).

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