Anjum Moudgil was the joint-first Indian shooter to seal a Tokyo Olympics quota when she won a women’s 10m air rifle back at the 2018 ISSF Shooting World Championships in Changwon.
Yet, she won’t be competing in that category at the upcoming Games as per the squad announced for the Summer Games.
Almost three years since winning the quota in a breakthrough year, Moudgil will be heading to Tokyo to represent India in women’s 50m rifle 3 positions and the 10m air rifle mixed team.
The women’s 10m air rifle is perhaps the most competitive shooting discipline in India and even when the maximum of two quota spots were won by current world No 3 Moudgil and Apurvi Chandela in the very first Olympics qualifying event, there were talks about the clash it would potentially generate. Remember, in shooting, the quota spots are earned by the country and not the athlete so the federation can pick any shooter to represent.
It would indeed prove to be the case.
The National Rifle Association of India’s Olympic selection policy made it clear that Elavenil Valarivan, the world No 1 in the discipline, will take the slot along with Chandela. It’s a practical solution given world No 3 Moudgil, unlike Chandela, has always competed in 3P as well, with multiple medals in the event.
Pragmatic approach
Moudgil is pragmatic about the decision, saying she is well aware of the rules. Two spots between world class shooters and a strict selection policy means the decision would come down to performance and she knew hers wasn’t up to the mark after the pandemic-disrupted 2020 schedule.
“Talks started when I won the quota in air rifle but my job is to shoot and get better at it,” she said with a smile, at a virtual press conference organised by the Sports Authority of India.
But it also means a rejig of her training program. Although both are rifle events, there are big differences in 10m air rifle and 50m 3-positions and the 27-year-old is now focussing more on the latter.
“I cut down on the training time I’ll be giving to 10m now, focussing more on 3 positions. It does make a difference if I am playing in the main team or just the mixed event, I’ll be shooting much less shots in mixed team than I would in an air rifle match so it makes a difference in my training timetable. The programme is made by my coach [Deepali Deshpande] and it did change after the selection, but the time is the only change we made,” she said.
At the season-opening Delhi ISSF World Cup in March, the first international competition for Indian rifle and pistol shooters in over a year, Moudgil, the world No 3 in 10m air rifle, finished fifth in the final after being the only Indian woman to qualify. She was 16th in 3P as no Indian reached the final.
However, Olympic selection takes into account scores from over a longer period and she missed due to her performance in the trials.
“I knew how I was performing but I also knew the reasons and I was working on them for one and a half years. I was first finding the mistakes, working on them and fixing them. After a break of one year where we didn’t shoot any competitions, the two trials helped me to understand where I stand and what all needs to be worked on at the World Cup. I was extremely happy with my World Cup performance in all three matches,” she said.
The slip is her performance was connected to the year-long suspension of events due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, but in a strange way.
The sport of shooting often hinges on the minutest of margins and it was a seemingly innocuous change in the brand of her customised shooting jacket, coupled with the physical absence of her coach, veteran Deepali Desphande, that saw her performance drop to the extent that she missed her Olympics slot.
“After the 2019 nationals, I changed the brand of my jacket and that didn’t suit me. But because of the lockdown I was not able to train with my coach and we were not able to identify that the kit was the problem. I thought my scores were dipping because I was out of competition.
“Only after the camps late in 2020 that we were able to figure it out. Deepali ma’am saw that the problem was not physical or technical but with the equipment. There are some things that only the coach realises and that’s why it took me some time but I am glad that I could fix it last year itself,” she explained.
How much does the miss affect her now, with the benefit of hindsight? The quota-clinching performance was one of her best, after all.
“That World Championship was a really good performance that I still enjoy when I think about it. But due to the policy and different reasons I was not selected. I am okay with it now and I respect the decision. I am ready to give my 100% in the events I am selected in. Nothing is lost, I still have two events to play and I’ll be preparing for it,” the shooter from Punjab said.
Despite the stiff competition, the dynamic of the Indian team – many of whom sport Moudgil’s famous hand-painted masks – is perhaps the best it has ever been and training together is one the reasons why the Indian team is headed for a three-month long training-cum-competition stint in Croatia.
The Olympic-bound contingent will depart for Zagreb on May 11 on a chartered flight in order to train together as a team which would otherwise not be possible given the current healthcare situation in India because of Covid-19. In Croatia, the shooters will take part in the European Championships in Osijek (May 20 to June 6) and the newly-announced combined ISSF World Cup (June 22 to July 3) before directly flying to Tokyo.
Moudgil believes it’s the best decision for the athletes and a small sacrifice for an Olympic medal.
“The condition in India right now is not okay for us athletes to train, we wish to train with the whole team together. I don’t have a proper 50m training range back home in Chandigarh, I don’t feel safe to stay in Delhi.
“We had camps in Delhi last year but it is different this time. Training with the whole team together with coaches and physios gives you confidence. For the Olympics I don’t mind staying away from my family, it is the basic requirement to win a medal,” she said.
This will be the 27-year-old first Olympics — even her Masters degree in Sports Psychology and generally calm nature might not completely insulate her from the pressure. But she has found a way to ignore external factors.
“Olympic is the pinnacle of sport and the importance given to it is huge, but from what I have studied and discussed with teammates and seniors, I would like to go into the Games as if it is any other competition. The level of the competition is similar especially at World Championships, just the pressure is more in Olympics. I am just preparing myself as for any major competition. Going with the flow and doing what I have done for so many years will get me through rather than focussing on one particular thing now,” she said.
Entering the final stretch of what has been a rollercoaster Olympic cycle, Moudgil is clear about the target – a performance to match the expectations she has of herself.
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