With 16 medals, shooting was India’s most successful sport at the Commonwealth Games held in April this year. However, the Asian Games starting Sunday, will be a bigger challenge for India’s 28-member strong shooting brigade.
Consider this: India won seven gold medals in shooting at the CWG 2018. India has won seven gold medals in shooting in the history of the Asian Games.
Given the tougher, more competitive field of Chinese and Korean shooters at the Asiad, it will be difficult for them to replicate the Gold Coast gold rush. At the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, India had finished eighth with a gold, silver and seven bronze, while China topped the table with 50 medals, including 27 gold in shooting.
In Jakarta, India have a mix of teenage sensations and veterans in their squad and have the ability to better the 2014 gold count, where only Jitu Rai had finished on top, in the 50m pistol event.
Of the four shooters who have won an Asiad gold for Indian – Jaspal Rana, Ronjan Sodhi, Randhir Singh and Jitu Rai – Rana is now in Indonesia as the junior national pistol coach credited with grooming both Manu Bhaker and Anish Bhanwala.
Young guns
And it is these two teen, both Commonwealth Games 2018 gold medallists, who will headline the Indian shooting contingent.
There will be a lot of expectation from 16-year-old Bhaker, who has also won a ISSF World Cup gold at the senior level and 2 juniors World Cups earlier this year. She will be competing in all three women’s pistol categories – 10m air pistol, 25m sport pistol and mixed team.
Bhanwala is yet to win a senior World Cup but has notched consistent scores in 25m rapid fire pistol to be assured of a high score, barring a freak mishap.
Also read: Asian Games 2018, Indian player profiles: Pistol shooting
But these two are not the only young guns who will represent India at the Asiad. India’s selection policy entails that the top two shooters with the highest average score after the six selection trials through the year will make it to the squad. This has thrown up quite a few new faces in the team, most of them juniors who have shot consistent numbers at the national level, even though they do not have a lot of experience internationally.
The men’s pistol team is a prime example of this with 29-year-old hobby shooter turned professional Abhishek Verma who will be making his international debut at the Asiad, talented ISSF Junior World Cup gold medallist Saurabh Chaudhary who is set for his first, big senior test, 21-year-old Shivam Shukla who won two gold medals at the ISSF Junior Cup 2015 and 15-year-old Bhanwala who has the Commonwealth and Junior record.
Also read: Asian Games 2018, Indian player profiles: Rifle shooting
Another young gun to watch out for is 18-year-old Elavenil Valarivan who edged out stiff competition in women’s 10m air rifle, which is one of the most competitive categories in India. Mentored by Gagan Narang, she has a record ISSF Junior World Cup gold to her name.
Angad Vir Singh Bajwa and Ganemat Sekhon in skeet, 14-year-old Shardul Vihan in double trap Gaayathri Nithyanadam and Akhil Sheoran in rifle are some of the other young shooters who will have a baptism of fire of sorts in Indonesia.
Also read: Asian Games 2018, Indian player profiles: Shotgun shooting
No team events
At the same time, several seasoned campaigners have retained their place in the squad, such as Sanjeev Rajput, Ravi Kumar, Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Ankur Mittal, Heena Sidhu, Rahi Sarnobat, Apurvi Chandela, Anjum Moudgil and Shreyasi Singh. All of them have the experience of competing and winning medals at the highest level and can finish on the podium on their day.
Another big blow to India’s medal chances is the scrapping of the team competition. At the 2014 Asiad in Incheon, five of the nine medals from the shooting range were in team events. There will be 20 shooting events this, while there were 44 events at the Incheon 2014 Asian Games.
However, this could be an opportunity in itself, as many shooters have done well in the newly-added mixed team event.
Both the rifle and pistol mixed teams will be in action on the first day, giving India a chance to open with a medal. Apurvi Chandela and Ravi Kumar finished fourth at the World Cup in Mexico, while Verma and Bhaker, although a new pair, have won national and international medals in mixed team.
With a medal event almost every day from August 19 to 26, many Indian fans will set their sights on shooting to win medals. It is after all the fourth most successful sport for India at the Asiad, after athletics, wrestling and boxing.
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