New coach impressed with shooters, not final range

NEW DELHI: They may not have been setting the stage ablaze in recent times but newly-appointed rifle foreign coach Oleg Mikhailov feels Indian shooters are among the “best in the world” and all they need is a bit of polishing in their technique.

Mikhailov, who had coached the Brazilian pistol team at the Rio Olympics last year, has so far spent about 10 days with the likes of Sanjeev Rajupt and Tejaswini Sawant, time not good enough to know them inside out but enough to leave him excited.

“I have been here with them for 10 days, so can’t comment in detail but I can say that this Indian team is very strong. They belong to the world’s top level. I will look to pol- ish their technique and I can assure that I will give my best,” Mikhailov said.

He added, “I don’t need to start from zero level here, which is my usual practice. It’s (the standard) is already at very high level.”

The Ukrainian kept an eye on each of them as they trained ahead of the season’s first ISSF World Cup starting on Thursday at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range. The other shooters practising in the 50-metre range were Elizabeth Susan Koshy and Lajja Gauswami.

India is hosting its first International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup and Mikhailov felt there could be pressure on the shooters in front of their home crowd.

“The pressure is much more while shooting at home because a lot of people are looking exactly at you, for them it doesn’t matter how others are doing. It’s a typical problem for all home competition, though,” he said.

The coach seemed to have found a few loopholes as far as organising the mega-event was concerned.

“For example the final hall is still not ready, people who prepared this don’t have enough experience in this area, I agree. So, work should have started much earlier. But the same problem we had in Rio Games too, we had faced it in pre-olympic event also.

“For future events it must start preparation well in advance, it’s the Indian shooters’ home range.”