Back in the groove, gunning for more

CHENNAI: OLYMPIC core group of shooters have been back in business since mid-October. Camping in a bio-secure environment amid ongoing pandemic, they have had to make plenty of adjustments, with several safety protocols in place. Coaches, overseeing the camp, are impressed with the manner in which the shooters have adapted to the new normal.

“For the first two, three days, I could see that lethargy and lack of focus because they hadn’t shot this seriously for a very long time. But they picked up the tempo soon and now, they’re totally into shooting,” rifle high performance coach Deepali Deshpande observed. After a four-week camp that is being held at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi, the shooters will be cooling off for a week. They’ll be heading home for Diwali on Tuesday. 

Before they resumed training, being organised by Sports Authority of India and National Rifle Association of India, the shooters had focussed on their fitness and had been training on their own. Deepali was encouraged by the level of work (both fitness and training) her wards had put in during period of lull.

“Today (Monday) we had 3 positions match, all the shooters shot 1170-plus scores, which is good for a start. In training, they have been shooting far better than that. This camp was not about competitive training, it was about getting the technical aspects of shooting right, working on changes the shooters have made etc,” she said. 

It’s not just Deepali who’s impressed with the level of shooters. Pistol high performance coach Samaresh Jung is also satisfied with the numbers his wards have been registering. “Shooters had decent training and they shot some good scores. We have time to go for competitions, so it was a start,” he said.

“The vital thing was to get them into training cycle. On that front, it was good. Some of them are shooting well right now, some of them have improved their shooting. It will take some time to reach good level of shooting.” 

Pavel likely to miss camp

The second camp is scheduled to start on November 18. Like the first camp, the shooters will remain quarantine for a week after returning to Delhi.  World No 1 Elavenil Valarivan, who missed the first camp due to her university exams, is set to be part of the upcoming camp. However, foreign coach Pavel Smirnov is unlikely to be part of the camp as he’s still in Moscow. N Gaayathri (rifle) and Om Prakash Mitharwal (pistol), other shooters who were not part of the first camp, are likely to skip again.