Saturday 12 March 2016

Sanjeev Rajput, a soft target ?!

NRAI president Raninder Singh congratulates Sanjeev Rajput


It is March, and most of the athletes are gunning for their Olympic berths. Many others have to wait for the ranking lists, weeks before the Olympics, to ensure their entry for the quadrennial extravaganza.

In shooting, however, the Olympic berths are about to be assigned to the shooters as a final confirmation of their entry for the Rio Olympics, by the national federation.

India has won 12 Olympic quota places, one more than last time. For the overall development of the sport in the last four years in the country, the added number is no indication and only a poor reflection, as many quota places agonisingly eluded the grasp of our shooters.

Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang, Chain Singh, Sanjeev Rajput, Apurvi Chandela, Ayonika Paul in rifle, Heena Sidhu, Gurpreet Singh, Jitu Rai, Prakash Nanjappa in pistol and Kynan Chenai and Mairaj Ahmad Khan in shotgun have won the Olympic quota places.

China (23), Russia (20), US (20), Australia (18), Germany 16),Italy (14), Egypt (12), France (11), Serbia (9) are the other leading countries in terms of the number of quota places won in shooting. Only 390 shooters make it to the Olympics to win the 45 medals spread over 15 events in pistol, rifle and shotgun.

With the Olympic quota places belonging to the country and not to the athletes who have won it, the national federation has the authority to field the shooters of its choice, with a maximum of two per event.

While most of the berths are likely to be taken by the athletes who have won the quota, there are some slots that may find replacements, breaking the heart of the shooters who won the quota.
Former World Champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu, a three-time Olympian, is already understood to have put himself in the No.1 spot in the national averages in men's trap, so as to take the flight to Rio on the Olympic quota won by the young Kynan Chenai.

Gurpreet Singh, the rapid fire pistol specialist who has won the Olympic quota in air pistol, may not be in the top-2 in the event in the averages, but is tipped to shoot air pistol along with Jitu Rai, ahead of Prakash Nanjappa who has won an air pistol bronze in the World Cup in 2013, and had placed ninth in the World Championship in Granada in 2014.

Prakash will be shooting the free pistol with Jitu Rai, the World Championship silver medallist, the Asian Games gold medallist who recently won the World Cup gold in the event in Bangkok.
Sanjeev Rajput, Gagan Narang

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has projected in the media recently that shooters who have not won the Olympic quota place, like Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar and the young rifle shooter Elizabeth Susan Koshy, also stood a chance to make it to the Rio Games.

A country can request for a maximum of one Olympic quota place in an event, to be replaced by one in another event, from the ISSF.

The soft target, carefully presented by the national federation, is that of Sanjeev Rajput, who won the Olympic quota in men’s rifle 3-position event in the Asia Olympic qualification competition at the Dr. Karni Singh Range in Delhi.

In fact, Sanjeev was literally winning the Olympic quota for the second time, as he had also done well in the Asian Championship in Kuwait, from which the 35 Olympic quota places were revoked by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

It is important to note that seven shooters who competed in the London Games, Vijay Kumar, Ronjan Sodhi, Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Rahi Sarnobat, Annu Raj Singh, Shagun Chowdhary and Joydeep Karmakar could not win the Olympic quota for Rio.

If he is allowed, Sanjeev will be shooting his third Olympics. Experience counts for everything on a global stage like the Olympics. Except for Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in Athens and Vijay Kumar in London who won Olympic silver on their first attempt, the Olympic medals for India have been achieved by Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang in their third Olympics.

The standard argument is that Gagan Narang, the World Championship and Olympic bronze medallist in air rifle, would shoot all three rifle events. It will not be prudent to question the ability of the much-decorated Gagan, but it does not require much wisdom to say that a shooter focused in fewer event stands a better chance to strike a medal.

Sanjeev had won the World Cup gold in the rifle 3-position event, with a national record score of 1176. Despite the consistency of Chain Singh and Gagan Narang, that record is yet to be disturbed. There is no reason why Sanjeev who is settling into the event, with his new equipment, will not be able to strike such form in Rio.

Of course, Gagan had also won a World Cup gold in rifle 3P in Changwonn in 2009, following a qualification score of 1166, and the Doha Asian Games bronze medal in 2006 with a score of 1162.

After shooting only air rifle in Athens, Gagan had placed 13th (1167) and 20th (1164) in the 3P event in the Beijing and London Games. He was 35th (589) and 18th (593) in the prone event in the Beijing and London Olympics.

In the last two World Championships also, Gagan was 13th (1171) and 32nd (1166) in 3P and 62nd (591) and sixth (625.5) in the prone event. It may also be noted that Gagan when he shot only air rifle, had set two world records in winning the World Cup Final gold in air rifle in 2008.

Now that he has qualified in prone and has been slowly recapturing his best in his main event air rifle, it will be a good idea for Gagan to concentrate on these two, so as to strike more medals in Olympics. The men’s rifle events are scheduled for August 8 (air), 12 (prone) and 14 (3P). Some times, one needs to give up something to get something.

As beautifully expressed during the opening ceremony of the Asia Olympic Qualification Competition, even the Sun’s rays burn only when brought into a focus, and not when they are scattered !

The national federation often fires its salvos conveniently placing its gun on the shoulders of the shooters. Thus, Prakash Nanjappa is asked whether he would like to forego his air pistol spot, or Gagan Narang is asked whether he would like to give up rifle 3-position event. The response can be different.

Quite ironically, rather than keeping everyone ready, the national federation fielded only 12 shooters in the first World Cup of the season in Bangkok. There was no Vijay Kumar or Elizabeth Susan Koshy, not to mention the numerous other leading shooters. The focus was purely on the shooters who had won the Olympic quota places. The rest were shooting national selection trials in Kerala.

It is important to encourage shooters to win the Olympic quota places. The best way is to help them compete in the Olympics unless there is a dramatic dip in form, as in the case of Hariom Singh. After figuring in the final of the World Championship, Hariom lost his place in the national team and eventually the Olympic quota place to Joydeep Karmakar, who eventually placed fourth in men’s rifle prone event in the London Olympics.

Imran Hasan Khan’s Olympic quota in rifle 3-position event was exchanged for a pistol quota for Heena Sidhu for the London Games. That quota had been won with a poor score of 1139, and deserved to be replaced.

In contrast, Sanjeev Rajput is as good a rifle 3-position shooter as India has ever had, and richly deserves to be given a chance to win an Olympic medal. With the rule of zero-start in the finals, you never know what medal anyone could win !

Moreover, it may be recalled that the national federation had toyed with the idea of replacing World Champion Abhinav Bindra with the Asian champion PT Raghunath for the Beijing Olympics. Better sense prevailed, and history was made.

Hopefully, it will be fair play once again for someone like Sanjeev Rajput who has quit the Navy and has been spending all his resources on his shooting. He has the excellence, experience and the hunger to succeed, if given a chance.

Indian shooting is so rich that there are at least a dozen shooters who have been either very close to winning the Olympic quota place or deserve a look. But, it is very important to reward the ones who have won it, if only to make sure that shooters would attack the Olympic quota places with all their strength in future, convinced that it would help them go to the Olympics.

Sometimes, it pays to keep things simple, rather than exercise authority.