Woman air pistol shooter Heena Sidhu's name has been proposed as a replacement for the Olympic quota place won by Imran Hasan Khan in men's 50-metre rifle 3-position event, by the national selectors, who met on Sunday to decide the 11 shooting entries for the London Games.
Since Gagan Narang and Sanjeev Rajput had already secured the two spots available for India in the men's rifle 3-position event, it was decided to exchange the superfluous quota place won in the Asian championship in Doha, for an entry for the 22-year-old Heena who had missed the Olympic quota on the last shot by 0.9 point in the same championship last month.
Apart from winning medals in the Commonwealth and Asian Games, Heena had won a silver in the World Cup in Beijing in 2009, when she shot an impressive qualifying score of 385. She shot scores of 384, 382, 380 and 378 in the four World Cups last year.
Of course, Heena will be the second air pistol shooter in the Indian squad for the London Games — if the international federation ISSF agrees to the request of exchange of quota place, subject to availability as per the rule — as Annu Raj Singh had ensured a quota place on way to the silver medal in the World Cup in Fort Benning last year with an impressive qualifying score of 389.
While nine of the other 10 shooters retained their Olympic quota, as they passed stringent tests set by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), Joydeep Karmakar was given the men's rifle prone berth in place of Hariom Singh who had won the quota place by finishing sixth in the World Championship in 2010, in his maiden international appearance, with a qualifying score of 598.
Hariom has slipped in performance since then. In the Asian Games he shot 590 in Guangzhou, and has not competed in any of the World Cups so far in his career, as he lost his place in the Indian main team.
The 32-year-old Karmakar topped the list among the Indian prone shooters, and has the distinction of having won a silver medal in the World Cup in Sydney in 2010, with a qualifying score of 599.
Narang second shooter
Gagan Narang will be the second shooter in men's rifle prone event for India in the London Games, and will be competing in three events in all, though he had won the quota place only in air rifle.
There was a bit of heart burn for a star of the last Commonwealth Games in Delhi, Anisa Sayyed, as the NRAI amended the selection policy weeks before the finalisation of names, giving more weightage for the ones winning the Olympic quota place.
The 21-year-old Rahi Sarnobat had performed brilliantly after shooting 582 in qualification with a breathtaking fare in the final when all her shots fetched her 10s for an impressive total of 207.7, that catapulted her to the bronze medal in women's sport pistol in the World Cup in Fort Benning last year.
Anisa Sayyed had shot 587 in the same event but was below par in the final in missing out on the quota place.
The NRAI was originally not taking the final performances into consideration while viewing the five best scores of a shooter for selection, but amended the rule to say that a shooter who fared better in the finals, would get the points for the higher qualifying score.
Bindra's 4th Olympics
Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra will be competing in his fourth Olympics, while it will be the third for Gagan Narang and trap shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu. Double trap marksman Ronjan Sodhi who won the Asian Games gold in 2010, and woman trap shooter Shagun Chowdhary who had won the fourth place in the shotgun World Championship last year, apart from the rapid fire pistol specialist Vijay Kumar will be making their Olympic debut.
There will be eight officials, accompanying the 11 shooters as coaches. It will include the five foreign coaches, Stanislav Lapidus and Heinz Reinkemier for rifle, Anatoly Piddubny and Pavel Smirnov for pistol and Marcello Dradi for shotgun. National coach Prof. Sunny Thomas will be accompanied by shotgun coaches Moraad Ali Khan and Amarjang Singh.
Incidentally, the NRAI has also given a list of reserve shooters, “for unforeseen circumstances only''. They are Imran Hasan Khan, Sushil Ghaley, Satyendra Singh, Pemba Tamang, Anisa Sayyed, Shweta Chaudhary, Anirudh Singh, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Seema Tomar.
