Under pressure and off the mark
Saurabh Chaudhary, 19, has never left an international event without a medal since he started shooting at the senior level in 2019. On Tuesday, Chaudhary, left the Asaka shooting range in Tokyo having ended his Olympic campaign without a podium finish.
It was a day when tension gripped the Indian shooting contingent, turned to disappointment, and then morphed into anger, as coaches, administrators and players revealed the cracks in the team. The shooters went into the Games projected as India’s strongest medal contenders. Not just because a shooting medal has come from every Olympics, barring Rio 2016, since Rajyavardhan Rathore’s silver in 2004, but also because this was a team with young talent that had international medals by the handfuls.
The disappointments began from the first day when Elavenil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela, who have both held world No 1 ranks in the last two years, failed to move out of qualification in 10m air rifle. On the same day, in 10m air pistol, Chaudhary made the final as the top qualifier but finished 7th. The next day, the shooters in the 10m air rifle men’s and 10m air rifle women’s also stumbled in the qualification rounds.
Yet, there was promise. Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker, who is also 19, have been the most dominant pistol mixed team pair in the world since the event was introduced in global competitions in 2019, and on Tuesday, hopes were high that they would leave their disappointments in individual events behind them with a medal in their strongest event.
The morning began well for them. Bhaker and Chaudhary topped the first stage of qualification (30 shots by each person in 30 minutes) with a score of 582; Saurabh fired 296, Manu 286. They were eighth among 20 teams who advanced to the second stage (40 shots in 20 mins). Chaudhary had a good run, but Bhaker shot four 8s, and the duo were out of the final. A few hours later, Divyansh Panwar and Valarivan made early exits in the rifle mixed team, as did Anjum Moudgil and Deepak Kumar.
“This has been a disappointment. Barring Saurabh (Chaudhary), no one put up a fight,” said Joydeep Karmakar, who had finished fourth in 50m rifle prone at London 2012. “Saying that it was one bad day in office doesn’t cut it when that day happens in the Olympics. Because there is no guarantee you will be back. Yes, they are young but they earned the quota place on merit fighting with older players. When you stand in the lane there are no kids, no elders, only competitors.”
Coaches with the team in Tokyo said that one of the problems is that between the personal coaches and the national coaches, there are too many conflicting inputs for the shooters. “You can’t start working with a shooter on the day of the Olympics,” said one coach who did not wish to be named.
There is also the issue of no psychologist travelling with the team. “There was a psychologist, physio and all the coaching staff in Osijek (in Croatia, where the team prepared for two months),” said Raninder Singh, the president of the National Rifle Association. “It is not possible to get everyone here because of Covid restrictions.”
Karmakar said that the lack of medals pointed to the preparations not being right. “The problem is not technical. We have good coaches and the players too are very aware now. But were the players trained to peak at the right time? Coaches need to know and work on that,” he said. “Create hunger, get into the flow state phase where you come closest to cutting out all the noise. Even the best will fail if that is not done. Most shooters, including Manu Bhaker today, found the pressure of an Olympics final suffocating. I think a high performance coach has a big role to play. For Paris, that coach can be appointed maybe one year prior to the Games but the coach has to help get the athlete to work with robotic efficiency.”
Bhaker, after the mixed team event, admitted that she was not in the right zone, even as she and Chaudhary answered questions with great poise. “Sometimes you don’t have control over things when you try way too hard or expect things,” Bhaker said. When asked how the Olympic experience was different for them, Chaudhary said “I’ve participated at the Youth Olympics before this. There’s nothing different here. Games Village hai, wohi range hai, target hai, pistol hai, hum hai, goli hai. (there is a Games Village, a range, a target, pistols, bullets, and us).”
But the results suggest there may be something to extra to the Games that got overlooked.
NRAI has issued a showcause notice to Francesco Repich, owner of the Swiss gun manufacturing company, Morini, for his critical comments on the performances of Indian shooters in Tokyo and on Sunday’s weapon malfunction that marred Bhaker’s qualification chances in air pistol. Bhaker shoots with a Morini pistol. Following the notice, Repich has removed his comments on Facebook.
The posts have left Indian shooting officials and Ronak Pandit, Bhaker’s coach who salvaged the situation by repairing her weapon to resume shooting, annoyed.
Repich’s Facebook post on July 24, after India’s other pistol shooter Saurabh Chaudhary finished seventh, read: “If you want to know how to destroy a potential gold medal team, please call Indian shooting federation. They’re going to advise you.”
After Bhaker’s gun malfunctioned, Repich posted that he spoke to a judge of the event and he was surprised that the weapon was not taken to the company’s repair area.
“Who is he? What is his intention? Why is he giving such posts? Is it to disturb the Indian contingent?” Pandit said.
He pointed out that going to the Swiss pistol-maker’s repair area meant Bhaker, in her competition shoes, shooting in an air-conditioned hall and required to keep heart rate under check, would have had to step into the harsh sun and walk more than a 100 metres.
Repich also claimed in his post that Bhaker had not asked for sighting shots (to check the weapon after repairs). “We had asked for sighters but officials were taking time to put the sighters on screen, so we had to start because time was running out,” Pandit said.
A technical official at the range confirmed that the Indian team had asked for sighters.
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