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Indians hoping for a good beginning

Kamesh Srinivasan

Sandhu looks eager for the challenge after completing three rounds of training

— Photo: AP

GEARING UP: India’s Rajyavardhan Singh, seen during a men’s double trap training session, will be hoping to provide India a good start.

BEIJING: The Indian contingent will look up to the shooters for a good start to the country’s Olympic campaign on Saturday, with five of the nine shooters in action on the opening day of the competition.

World champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu, a little ruffled by the heat and humidity for more than a week, was quite relaxed on Friday and looked eager for the challenge after completing three rounds of training.

He did not shoot a perfect round, but said everybody was struggling to get into a rhythm. “It maybe because of the China clay that is being used. It is not easy to get into a rhythm. You easily miss one or two,” said Sandhu, referring to the ‘flash’ targets that go into a powder, being used for the qualification rounds for the first time in international competition.

For a green Olympics

In keeping with the theory of green Olympics, the host has replaced the traditional orange targets containing pitch, a petroleum product, with non-toxic and bio-degradable targets made of lime.

The modernised discs contain a pack of green powder base that make the hit more visible. The finals will feature red-powder discs. “If you see a light trace of powder, you are supposed to get the ‘kill’, but the referees have to be extremely sharp for that. They may give one and not give another, if they are not alert,” Sandhu said.

Having shot in this range in the World Cup in April, Sandhu has changed his technique as the birds tend to fly low. So he has opted to point the gun lower than normal.

“I think the change is for the better,” he said wistfully, even as he stressed that he was trying to wriggle out of the below-par run in recent times to come good when it counts.

Sandhu will have the two-time Olympic champion, Michael Diamond of Australia in his batch along with Giovanni Pellielo of Italy.

The other Indian in the fray, Mansher Singh, in his fourth Olympics, will be shooting along with Nasser Meqlad of Kuwait.

Interestingly, Ahmed Almaktoum, whose Olympic participation was in doubt as he had kept away from international competition on winning the double trap Olympic and world championship gold medals, will be shooting the trap as well.

Samaresh Jung, the Melbourne Commonwealth Games hero, will open his campaign in air pistol, in a field of 64 shooters. Pang Wei of China, the World champion, will be the favourite, though he may find a tough contender in Mikhail Nestruev of Russia.

The Sydney Games champion, Frank Dumoulin of France, will try to repeat his performance in the World Cup in which he had won the gold.

In women’s air rifle, which offers the first gold medal of the Games, the focus may be on Chinese Du Li, who will attempt to defend her Athens gold.

Indians Anjali Bhagwat and Avneet Kaur Sidhu will attempt to steal the thunder.

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