Feud raged in shooting camp in Tokyo run-up
They went to Tokyo 2020 heralded as India’s brightest medal prospects. On Tuesday, after India’s air rifle and air pistol shooters ended their campaign not just without a medal, but also with only one out of eight shooters in six events managing to enter a final, the lid blew off a controversy over fractious player-coach relationships within the shooting squad.
“We are going to see an overhaul of Indian coaching staff, for sure. We are no longer going to be held at ransom,” National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president, Raninder Singh, said immediately after the 10m air pistol mixed pair event, where teenagers Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhury exited in the qualifying stage.
A few hours later Divyansh Panwar and Elavenil Valarivan bowed out in the qualifying round of the 10m air rifle mixed pair.
“There was only one person who was a negative factor in the whole thing, and I’m calling it out right now, it was Jaspal Rana,” said Singh, referring to the four-time Asian Games gold medallist who is now one of the pistol coaches for India’s elite shooters.
“But this performance is not Rana’s fault,” Singh said.
Though Rana was with the Indian Olympic shooting contingent for a two-month preparatory camp in Osijek, Croatia, he has not travelled to Tokyo.
According to Singh, the problems began during the ISSF shooting World Cup in New Delhi in March, when Rana and Bhaker had a falling out.
“Both sides were not willing to work because of various instances they cited,” Raninder said. “The girl cited something, parents said something, and Jaspal in his defence cited something. I tried twice (to intervene) during the World Cup in Delhi, and once after that.”
Things came to a head when Rana arrived at the range for a practice session during the March World Cup wearing a shirt in which he had inscribed an angry text that Bhaker had sent him. Singh said that no disciplinary action was taken after the incident.
“It was called out. But please understand when you are in the build up to the Olympics, as head of the family you have to keep everyone together,” he said. “But this performance is not Rana’s fault.”
Rana did not respond to multiple calls and messages seeking comment. Bhaker’s father Ram Kishan Bhaker, who manages her career, said he did not want to comment on the controversy. “Whatever the federation head is saying is right,” he said.
Former shooter Ronak Pandit was appointed as Bhaker’s coach after the World Cup.
After her second setback in Tokyo — she got out in the individual 10m pistol qualification round on July 25 after losing time due to a jammed weapon — Bhaker appeared to address the controversy. “I didn’t choose to change my coach,” she said. When asked whether she wanted to train under Rana, she said, “It’s not about me wanting. It’s that he didn’t seem right at the moment.”
Bhaker is also the only shooter in the contingent competing in three different medal events — her last event, 25m pistol precision, is on July 29 (qualifying), with the final the next day.