He is the world No. 1 in the 10m air pistol but India’s Jitu Rai could not even qualify for the final in this event at the ongoing world shooting championships in Spain after finishing 10th in the qualifiers. Grabbing the gold in Granada was Korean Jin Jongoh who is also the Olympic champion.
Jitu did win a silver at the worlds, in 50m free pistol, but taking the prized yellow was Jongoh once again who broke a long-standing world record in the process. And Jongoh is Olympic champion in that event too.
That will give an idea about the quality of competition one can expect in shooting at the Asian Games which begins on Saturday. India may be the shooting king at the Commonwealth Games but Asia is a very cruel world in the sport. It’s a discipline where India has won just six gold medals in Games history, with just one yellow coming in the last edition, apart from three silvers and four bronzes, in Guangzhou.
It’s a continent filled with Olympic and world champions. In fact, South Korea topped the medal table at the last Olympics in London two years ago with three golds and two silvers and not far behind was China with seven medals, including two golds and two silvers.
New starsAnd, Asia keeps throwing up young, new champions each year. China’s 18-year-old Yang Haoran, who will be in action against India’s 2008 Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra, is a classic case.
Days after winning the Youth Olympics Games gold, Haoran emerged as one of the stars of the recent worlds taking the 10m air rifle gold while Bindra could not make the final, an eight-man field, after finishing 15th in the qualification round in his pet event.
While Korea and China are dominating the worlds, which end on Saturday, India has won just one gold so far in the senior section. It could also pick up only one of the 64 quota places for the 2016 Rio Olympics which were available from Granada while countries like Korea and China took home a handful.
Under the circumstances, one can understand why Commonwealth Games champion Abhinav Bindra, the country’s most celebrated shooter and an Olympic gold medallist, is yet to win an individual medal at the Asian Games.
Shooting is a strange sport, a bit like golf, where you suddenly find your touch and swing go awry. And the new rules, where the qualification scores are not added to the final, makes the final series more interesting while offering a chance for even the last man to make the grade and win a gold. However, despite the changes, the Koreans and the Chinese seem to be in a zone of their own.
Asian champion Heena Sidhu, who will be seen on the opening day, will be keen to make amends for the Commonwealth Games mess-up and for missing the world championships’ women’s 10m air pistol final by one point. The focus will also be on school girl Malaika Goel who won the Commonwealth Games silver in the event.
There are 44 golds up for grabs here. How many will India take?
