Indian shooters had a disappointing outing in Rio, with only two of the 12 shooters even managing to reach the Finals.
Barring Abhinav Bindra in the 10m Air Rifle and Jitu Rai in 10m Air Pistol, no other shooter managed to make the Final cut.
Rai got eliminated pretty early in the Final round to finish eighth and it was 33-year-old Bindra who was the closest to securing the medal as the 2008 Beijing Gold medallist missed the Bronze by 0.1 point.
With 12 shooters at their disposal Indian fans would have been forgiven for expecting at least a repeat of london Olympics, when the country bagged two medals — Gagan Narang (bronze in the 10m air rifle event) and Vijay Kumar (silver in the 25m rapid fire pistol).
Instead, there was disappointment with the brigade returning empty handed. This was the first Olympics since 2000 that the shooters failed to win a medal.
However, shooter Ronjan Sodhi does not believe it was a disappointing outing and placed the blame on the format, luck issues and other such intangible factors.
“I won’t say that it’s really disappointing. We were expecting a medal from Abhinav and he came really close to it. Also for that a lot of luck factor is involved. Don’t forget his gun fell in the morning, he had to change the site and from what I believe the light of the qualification hall and the light of the sun hall were very different. He had different sites for Finals and qualification.
“As far as Jitu Rai is concerned this was his first Olympics, he came into the international scene only in 2014. He needs a lot of more experience. The weather was bad and he could not counter that,” he added.
Ronjan feels that in the new format, luck plays a big role as not always the best shooter on the day wins the medal. “Earlier, the qualification scores were carried forward. If you have one bad shot now, it is difficult to comeback. Not many shooters approve of this,” he said.
Sodhi, who represented India in the 2012 Olympics and is an Arjuna Awardee and a Khel Ratna, believes the burden of expectation can sometime undo the athletes at the Olympics. “In london people were talking about Abhinav winning a medal but no one was talking about Vijay winning a medal, but he won a medal. You have a lot of burden on your shoulders when you are going in as a favourite. Because Jitu won everything possible in the last couple of years, there was a lot of burden on him,” he added.
Despite Heena Sidhu having lost in 10m air pistol and 25m pistol in the first round at Rio, Sodhi believes she will come back stronger. “She has a lot of shooting left in her, she is a fighter. I think she will come back strong,” he felt.
“Abhinav is somebody who, for the past 15 years, has done nothing but shooting morning and evening. It is not about age, it’s about the amount of time you spend doing the same thing over and over again. Everybody needs a break. If Abhinav has decided to retire it’s his decision. You see a lot of senior athletes who retire, but come back. let’s give him time. let’s see. When champions take a decision we should respect it. They think differently, they are made differently, that’s why they are champions,” Sodhi said.
Now, Sodhi feels, it is time to forget Rio and start earnest preps for Tokyo Olympics. “You can’t give your Olympic athletes a year and expect them to get a medal. It’s a long-term thing. We have great scope from the Government and good support from the Federation, so I don’t see why we won’t be able to do well. We have the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games which are also important for India,” he said.
He rues that “in sports science, we are far behind other nations. Everyone should look into,” he concludes.