The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has further strengthened its junior development programme, following the fine performances in the recent ISSF Junior Cup in Suhl (Germany), in which India claimed three gold, six silver and five bronze medals.
The shooters were felicitated at a function organised by the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) at its premises on Wednesday, with a cash award of Rs. 11,000 each to the medallists, irrespective of the number of medals or their colour.
The president of NRAI, Raninder Singh, who felicitated the shooters, announced that five foreign coaches would be added for the junior scheme.
Five more coachesThey would work “along with, and not above” the leading Indian coaches like Deepali Deshpande, Jaspal Rana and Vikram Chopra.
Two of the coaches — Isroil Saidov and Natalya Zhukova — will be for rifle, one for pistol (Yuri Lisichko) and the other two for shotgun (Juan Giha and Andrea Miotto). Stating that the government had sanctioned a budget of Rs. 11.5 crore for the juniors this season, the NRAI president pointed out that there were seven more training camps and four international competitions lined up for them this season.
The Indian juniors have had 11 camps so far, including one international camp prior to the Suhl campaign, and six international competitions.
“In our time, we had only moral support and hardly any international competition for the juniors,” said Raninder, himself a trap shooter of considerable prowess.
Incidentally, he was recently appointed the chairman of the ISSF awards committee.
The Indian shooters finished fourth in the medals table behind Russia and Switzerland, losing the third spot to Italy by a silver medal in Suhl.
Shivam Shukla won the individual gold in standard pistol and sports pistol, while Akhil Sheoran missed the gold in the shoot-off after being tied with Christoph Duerr of Switzlerand on 454.3 points in the junior men rifle 3-position event. Sumedh Kumar and Rituraj Singh bagged the free pistol and standard pistol silver medals.
Icing on the cakeThe icing on the cake for the juniors is their inclusion in the senior squad. Yashaswini Deswal and P. Shri Nivetha have been selected for women’s air pistol for the next World Cup in Gabala, Azerbaijan, an event which offers Olympic quota places.
It was mentioned that the best-ever performance of the young shooters had helped NRAI take up their case strongly with the competent authority for further liberalisation, aimed at making shooting a common man’s sport.
