The Indian shooters picked for the World Cup stages in Argentina and Peru have joined the national camp at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Ranges here, beginning their final phase of preparations for the season ahead from Saturday.
Barring few exceptions, most of the shooters in the 35-member squad reported to the camp on Friday and have started working with their respective coaches.
The first batch of shooters will leave for the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, venue of the year’s first International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun (April 1-11) stage, on March 26. The South American leg continues thereafter in Lima, Peru, where the second ISSF combined World Cup stage will be hosted from April 13-22.
As reported earlier, double Olympic bronze medallist Manu Bhaker will be the only Indian shooter to start in two individual events, the women’s 10m air pistol and the women’s 25m pistol.
Indian shooters will compete in 15 events across the disciplines of rifle, pistol and shotgun, including 12 individual and three mixed team events. “It is the first national camp of the year, so the main focus will be to first assess various improvement areas for various individuals. “There are many seasoned national campers so their strengths and improvement areas we are mostly familiar with. The new shooters will get more focus,” said Dronacharya awardee coach Deepali Deshpande, who is now the head coach of the squad.
Like new national campers, there were also first-timers among coaches such as the decorated Jitu Rai and Pooja Ghatkar.
Among the new shooters was national air rifle women’s champion Ananya Naidu.
Clearly excited to be at the camp, she said, “Although I have shot with all of them before in domestic competitions, but still to be around such great coaches and performers and getting focused time to pick their brains, is a wonderful feeling. I will try to absorb and learn as much as I can.”
India has a proud record in recent times in ISSF tournaments. In the previous year, which saw a trimmed ISSF calendar because of the Olympics, they had topped the medal tally in the opening combined World Cup stage in Cairo, before going on to win an unprecedented three medals at the Paris Games. This year, the top shooters will be aiming mainly for the World Championships scheduled for October (shotgun) and November (rifle/pistol). There will be a total of three World Cup stages for each discipline. Also on the international roster this year is the 16th Asian Championships in Kazakhstan in August.
