Gagan Narang: All the criticism could fire up Manu Bhaker

The Indian shooting contingent has had a disappointing campaign so far in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics. Medal prospects like Divyansh Panwar, Manu Bhaker, Saurabh Chaudhary have all failed to bring home a medal. However, there are quite a few events left like the 25m air pistol, 50m 3P where India still are in with a shout.

Rahi Sarnobat and Aishwary Pratap Singh will be shooting in the 50m 3 Position event while Manu Bhaker will be in action in the 25m pistol event. After disappointing in the 10m Air Pistol women's and mixed events, she will be desperate to shut her critics with a podium finish in her final event.

However, Gagan Narang, an Olympic medallist himself, who finished on the podium at London 2012 is cautiously optimistic about India's medal chances from the rest of the events.

"I will not raise my expectations at this point in time. In fact, before the tournament, we had written down medals for some athletes like we were absolutely sure. They have not performed in the way that we have expected. But definitely, we have good chances. Rahi has been in good form since Osijek. Aishwary is very focused on his game. Sanjeev has a lot of experience. Even Manu has one competition left. All this criticism might fire her to give her best performance ever. So we have our fingers crossed and hoping for the best," he stated during a media interaction with select journalists facilitated by official broadcaster Sony Pictures.

The former shooter backed NRAI (National Rifle Association of India) and the Indian government for all the support they have provided and now wants that the same approach be maintained throughout the Olympic cycle for four years.

"We have to change some things. But first, we have to find out what went wrong. The federation and the government did all that they could. But that was done only for the Olympics. This should be the standard throughout the Olympic cycle.

"Of course, there must have been gaps. There must be some reasons. Probably they were a very long time away from home, but it was necessary because of Covid-19. A lot of things can be done better. But that will happen only after a detailed discussion with the team," he opined.

There has been a lot of controversy after Bhaker's pistol malfunctioned in her 10m Air Pistol individual event which led to time loss and ultimately she could not qualify for the final. Narang shared his thoughts on the matter.

"There were two options. One option is the backup weapon. Then you have to select different pellets for that. It is like using your friend's laptop in office. More importantly, you have to be comfortable with the backup gun. Then secondly, we can cannibalise from the backup gun and use it in the regular gun. I think this was done in this case.

Narang is a mentor to Elavenil Valarivan who also had a disappointing outing in Tokyo as she could not qualify for the finals in both her events - women's and the mixed event in 10m Air Rifle.

"I have been mentoring Ela and I spoke to her after the matches and before as well. We are in touch to understand what is going on in her head. She said "I did my best and did technically what had to be done. But even when I was feeling that I was hitting 10.6 it was 10.3.' That happens when your body is not giving the right feedback. This happens when you are depleted inside. I did not probe her much. Let her come back, sleep over a few nights, and then we could analyse more."

Narang feels that a medal can change everything for the rest of the squad. And the athletes are sincere enough to focus at the task at hand. However, he believes that if it were not for the Covid break things could have been much better for India.

"Everyone goes to win a medal. Nobody goes as a tourist. They are all minding their own businesses. Even in the dining hall, they would just wave as everyone remains focused. Winning a medal sometimes is not your hands. However, when the first medal comes in, it is a breath of fresh air. It charges you more. Rajyavardhan's (Rathore) medals (in Athens 2004) did that for us. But of course, you feel morose when you are not winning.

"I don't believe in luck. Even for luck if you have to be ready. If you go back to 2010 and see my graph, you can see how many times I peaked. With Covid coming in and not being able to train might have affected their peaking form. But taking them to Croatia and training was fantastic. They were shooting great scores there," he said.

Rahi Sarnobat and Manu Bhaker will be in action in the wee hours of Thursday morning in the 25m air pistol qualification event.

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