Indian shooting is calling the shots, not just in the world of sports!
Ten years after winning the country’s first individual silver medal, at the Athens Olympics, Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore has moved on to serve the country better, as the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting.
Much in contrast, the former World and Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra has marched on relentlessly, unmindful of the dramatic rule changes, allowing himself the joy of winning the lesser medals that he had not bothered to look at earlier in his pursuit of Olympic glory.
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Six years after winning the country’s only individual gold medal in the Beijing Olympics, Bindra won his maiden individual gold medal on the fifth attempt in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and his first individual medal in Asian Games at Incheon.
To cap an exciting season, Bindra also successfully defended the National gold in air rifle in a strong field of about 300 shooters in Pune.
If there was one shooter who outclassed Bindra and company this season, it was Jitu Rai. Right from the time when he won three World Cup medals, a gold and two silver, in the space of nine days in Maribor and Munich, the 27-year-old Army marksman was a class act.
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Reduced to competing only in the 50-metre free pistol event, and not in the 10-metre air pistol in which he was world No.1, Jitu capitalised on the limited opportunity to shoot one of the four individual gold medals for the country in Scotland in Commonwealth Games.
He went on to capture the World championship silver in free pistol in Granada, Spain, before flying into Incheon to land the free pistol gold. He became only the second pistol shooter after Jaspal Rana, and only the fourth shooter in history, to win an individual shooting gold for India in the Asian Games.
Shotgun marksmen Randhir Singh in 1978 and Ronjan Sodhi in 2010, have been the other gold winners.
Compared to the 27 gold medals that the Olympic super power China won in the Asian Games in Incheon, Indian shooting stood humbled with one glowing moment.
The Indian shooters did win a silver and seven bronze medals in Korea, apart from four gold, nine silver and four bronze in the Commonwealth Games. Understandably, a lot more was expected of them.
There was only one quota place for the Olympics, won by Jitu Rai in the World championship in Granada.
On the positive side, Apurvi Chandela and Rahi Sarnobat emphasised the potential of Indian women shooters with gold medals in the Commonwealth Games. To a great extent, it compensated for the missing medals from the former world No. 1 Heena Sidhu, who had overwhelmed the reigning world champion Zorana Arunovic of Serbia with a world record in winning the season-ending World Cup Final in 2013.
Of course, the former world champion and six-time Asian champion, Manavjit Singh Sandhu had set the tempo for the season by winning the trap gold in the Tucson World Cup, while Heena Sidhu had herself won a silver in air pistol in the World Cup in Fort Benning, apart from capturing the gold in the Asian championship in Kuwait City. Ayonika Paul also won the World Cup bronze in women’s air rifle in Maribor.
The good thing about Indian shooting is that it does not depend on champions like London Olympics medallists, Vijay Kumar (silver) or Gagan Narang (bronze), but has a wide array of potential champions ready to take charge.