Another chance for Indians to reign supreme

By Kamesh Srinivasan

BISLEY, AUG. 23. It will be a mini battle in the intensely competitive world of shooting. The fourth Commonwealth shooting championship, beginning here on Friday, may help the 20-odd teams assembled here to gauge their progress for the more serious battles ahead.

For India, it will be no less than a prestige issue, to ascertain its supremacy. For a country that had initiated the idea and conducted the first event in a grand fashion in Delhi in 1995, winning 25 medals then, 12 of them gold, India has been utilising the meet quite well to reap the rewards.

India has won 58 medals so far - 27 gold, 20 silver and 11 bronze in three editions, and used them as the stepping stone for excellence on the bigger stages like the Commonwealth Games, the Asian Games, the World Cups and the Olympics. The shooters have further benefited from the lucrative cash awards from the government, for the medals.

Every medal counts, and that is why India has its best shooter Abhinav Bindra aiming the targets here, rather than tune himself fully for the most prestigious World Cup finals in Munich where he is scheduled to shoot with the best in the business on Saturday.

The programme is so packed that after shooting the pairs event in air rifle on the opening day here on Friday, the 18-year-old Abhinav does not have the time to practice in Munich. The intense young man sports a maturity beyond his age, and looks at the whole exercise as a challenge for him to capitalise on the three opportunities. He has a simple target, and aims to hit the 10s.

The range in Munich is as good as his backyard for Abhinav, who shot the world junior record score of 597 out of 600 in the last World Cup there, winning the bronze with a 700.5. The whole exercise was as good as hitting the 0.5 millimetre dot at 10 metres every time in 70 successive attempts. And that is some precision shooting. Examinations had robbed precious practice time for Abhinav, but he says that he still has a few tricks up his sleeve.

After Abhinav, it will be Anjali Vedpathak, who will be shouldering the responsibility of the Indian team. She had won two individual gold medals, one with a Commonwealth record last time in Auckland. In fact, the Indian women have only accounted for three of the 27 gold medals won by the country, and the 32- year-old Anjali had a hand in all of them. The Olympic finals in Sydney, and the recent fifth position in the Munich World Cup give Anjali the rare aura.

Trap shooter Anwer Sultan will have a chance to prove once again that he is far better than what he is generally given credit for. It was he who had won the only quota place for the country for the Sydney Olympics by clinching the silver in the Asian Championship. The 39-year-old won the bronze recently in the Asian clay shooting championship to boost his morale.

Mansher Singh, who shot a world class 146 out of 150 in the first edition and still had to settle for silver, is not the same force now. The 35-year-old has apparently lost the intensity of focus somewhere on the way.

The 24-year-old Manavjit Singh, the best trap shooter at present has to really grab the stage to justify his immense potential. Maybe the arrival of the Italian coach Marcello Dradi would help the shotgun shooters focus on their task a lot better.

Skeet shooter Arti Singh has joined the best in the world, and has virtually qualified for the World Cup finals to be held in Doha in October, based on her fourth position in the World Cup in Lonato. The 22-year-old Delhi girl is trying to lift the sagging confidence of the skeet shooters, who have otherwise been grappling with lack of ammunition even here, as much as their poor form.

Major Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore is another intense young man, with a burning desire to excel. The double trap specialist did have a good World Cup in Lonato apart from a fourth position in the Asian Clay event in Bangkok. The 31-year- old will be out to make the maximum of the fine setting here.

Shilpi Singh has been making impressive progress in air pistol, and will be keen to land a precious medal this time.

Well, we cannot forget Jaspal Rana in a hurry. He had won the `best shooter' award in the inaugural edition, landing eight gold medals, including four individual medals. Since then, he has been winning only his pet centrefire pistol gold and making the odd World Cup final in air pistol.

The Hungarian pistol coach from Australia for the Indian team, Tibor Gonczol strongly feels that the 25-year-old Jaspal is still one of the very best in the world. The challenge for Jaspal among others, would be to shoot above 580 in air pistol.

There are a string of younsters both in the men's and women's section who are eagerly looking forward to the competition to make their first sure steps. We will know more about them and their potential in the next few days.

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Section  : Sport
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