Dehradun: The newly-built shooting range at the Maharana Pratap Sports College, reverberated with pellets hitting the target as the country’s top shooters engaged in intense action at the 38th National Games here.
Shooting has produced a stream of precocious talents in recent times — three of the five Olympics medals at Paris Olympics has come from the sport.
While the talent pool has expanded, the competition at home is fierce. In women’s 10m air rifle, particularly, the level is so high, that shooters are pushing each other to limits. The contest to book a Paris Olympics berth was tough enough for both quota winners —Tilottama Sen and Mehuli Ghosh — to lose the race at home in the Olympic selection trial.
Unlike Tilottama and Mehuli, Asian Games medallist Ramita Jindal seized the opportunity to make the cut for Paris. In her debut Olympics, she impressed the way she fought back in the qualification to enter the final. She ended up in the seventh position.
On her return, Ramita took a three-month break from shooting. “There were a lot of lessons to be learnt from Paris. One is that I need to improve in the final. Qualification is my strong point. But I start slow in the final and gradually pick up. I keep fighting till the last shot and squeezed in (medal contention). Sometimes, I think in bigger matches like the one in Paris Olympics it doesn’t work like that,” reflects Ramita.
The 21-year-old was in a similar situation in the women’s air rifle final on Thursday. She was on the verge of elimination after 14 shots but then picked up to finish third. This after she topped the qualification.
“The qualification was amazing but today again I wasn’t really consistent. I didn’t start really well but I was able to come back and secure a bronze. Yes, the competition at home is getting tougher with each match. You have to have patience and trust your abilities,” says Ramita.
But when you are fighting in a field packed with Olympians, world cup and world championships medallists, even the slightest error could send your spiralling down.
On Thursday, Narmada Nithin Raju was in a zone. With astounding precision and consistency, she finished at the top. Once she got the lead in the second series, shots in the higher 10s helped her open up a gap. In the end, she scored 254.4 — which was 0.1 less than the world record score. Arya Rajesh Borse of Maharashtra proved to be equally strong to take the silver (252.5).
“In domestic competitions, it is always tough. Everyone is shooting high scores. Throughout the world, the average score has increased,” said Narmada.
Narmada said she focussed on leading from start to finish. “I practised like that; it’s something I visualised. My heart rate was so high even in the final. Everyone is fighting, encouraging each other to go forward,” she added.
Ramita, Narmada and the rest of the air rifle shooters will have to keep testing themselves at the domestic level as they enter a packed calendar that started with the National Championships last month. The selection trials for the World Cup are scheduled next month, and the world championship in Cairo in November, will be the biggest event this season.
“Yes, the competition at home is getting tougher with each match. You have to have patience and trust your abilities,” said Ramita.
Anish wins in rapid fire pistol
Two Paris Olympians Anish Bhanwala and Vijayveer Sidhu finished at the podium in rapid fire pistol final. Anish scored 31 hits to win gold while Sidhu won bronze with a total of 26 hits. Gurpreet Singh of SSCB claimed the silver medal (28).
