No more hold-ups, India to name Olympics shooting team soon
The governing body also made it clear that only trials until February of this year will be taken into account while announcing the team.
No further trials will be conducted to establish the Tokyo-bound Indian shooting contingent for the Olympics next year.
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) have confirmed that they will announce India’s shooting team imminently even though the Tokyo Games is still a year away.
This will be done based on trials conducted until February of this year, and making it clear that no further Olympic trials will take place.
Indian shooters were earlier split over the best time to name the Olympic team.
While Apurvi Chandela and Abhishek Verma called for the team to be finalised at the earliest, India’s only individual Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra urged the announcement to be delayed.
“I don’t think we will get anything better after conducting more trials. We will honour the policy that we had put in place,” NRAI president Raninder Singh told the Times of India.
“Those who have made it to the top two in each category will be in the reckoning to be in the team, having said that, there may be some leeway in some specific case,” he added.
Aishwary Pratap Singh keeps his hopes up
Aishwary Pratap Singh, men’s rifle 3 position quota holder and gold medal winner in the Junior World Cup last year, is one such shooter who will be banking on the leeways.
With just two quotas up for grabs, Aishwary Pratap Singh finds himself in third place following the conclusion of the Olympic trials.
Despite veteran Sanjeev Rajput and Maharashtra’s Swapnil Kusale – who didn’t bag a quota and is yet to win an international medal – placing first and second respectively in the Olympic trials, Aishwary Pratap Singh still expects the selectors to consider his case.
“There is a difference of only a couple of points between me and Swapnil. I feel the selectors will consider that all my scores came from shooting in international competitions while Swapnil shot more in domestic trials,” Aishwary Pratap Singh reckoned.
“I would expect the selectors to consider my case, if not, I would like to have more trials,” said the 19-year-old.
As many as 15 Indian shooters, including Manu Bhaker, Anjum Moudgil and Yashaswini Singh have secured a quota for the Olympics.