NRAI president says an overhaul of coaching staff possible after poor Tokyo performance

Shooting is supposed to be one of India’s strong points as the sport has been successful in Indian sporting history.

Manu Bhaker in a file photo; Credit: NRAI
By Nilavro Ghosh | Jul 27, 2021 | 2 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Raninder Singh Sodhi said that he is currently discussing overhauling the coaching staff after the athletes did not perform up to the mark at the Tokyo Olympics. Shooting is supposed to be one of India’s strong points as the sport has been successful in Indian sporting history. Abhinav Bindra was the first athlete to win an individual gold for the country and it was in shooting in 2008. Since then, exceptional results have been returned by the country in the sport, especially at the Olympics. The shooting contingent of the country for the Olympics were even favorites to win medals.

“Yes, definitely the performances have not been on expected lines and I have spoken of an overhaul of the coaching staff as I feel something is lacking in getting our shooters prepared for these big occasions because clearly the talent is there and we have seen it here as well,” said Sodhi to news agency ANI. “Let’s continue to back the team and I am sure we’ll get results. Postmortems can wait till after the Games,” he added.

DISAPPOINTMENT IN TOKYO

Shooters Saurabh Chaudhury and Manu Bhaker did not have satisfactory performances at The Games this year. The pair failed to qualify for the all-important medal match in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event after finishing the Qualification stage 2 at the seventh spot at the Asaka Shooting Range. Chaudhary and Bhaker earned a score of 380 in the round, but it was not enough to see them through to the final stages of the competition. The two had scored 582 points in the first qualification round.

The other shooters that were competing also did not exactly make good on their performance. Earlier, shooters Deepak Kumar and Divyansh Singh Panwar failed to qualify for the medal round in the men’s 10m Air Rifle Qualification. Elavenil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela also could not qualify for the medal round after finishing 16th and 36th respectively in the women’s 10m Air Rifle Qualification.

Both Manu Bhaker and Yashaswini Singh Deswal could not qualify for the medal round after finishing 12th and 13th respectively in the women’s 10m Air Pistol Qualification.