The Hindu : Strange but true, a range in the city centre

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 03, 2002

Sport

Sport - Shooting

Strange but true, a range in the city centre

By Kamesh Srinivasan

LAHTI (FINLAND) JULY 2. Take the sport to the people. That seems to be the policy here. It may be tough to digest the fact that the World shooting championship is being conducted in an athletics arena right in the middle of the city, but that is the fact.

``We want to demonstrate that the sport, shooting, can be safe and can co-exist in harmony with the environment, and in the vicinity of housing areas, using existing sporting grounds'', is the message for the shooting fraternity and the rest of the world from the president of Finnish Shooting Sport Federation, Mr Alpo Vehanen.

It is some sight to watch the ski jump hill, and the 80-lane 50-metre range adjacent, with the giant electronic board in-between, bridging the most basic sport with the one that needs the advanced technology. Athletics, shooting and ski jumping can after all coexist.

Being open to the elements of weather, the stiff wind and the cold conditions, it would indeed be a huge challenge for the shooters to be at their best. But then, that is what sport is all about. A lot would depend on the day, the lane you get, the weather and many other things. In shooting especially you fight your own form and the conditions, rather than compete with the others.

``If you even tried to suggest such a thing in Australia or in India, they would think that you have gone mad. But the ability of the Europeans to establish temporary structures and dismantle them, is unbelievable,'' said the overall manager of the Australian contingent here, Ray Andrews.

The ISSF, the world governing body for the sport, has been planning to make it more a one-to-one competition in the final stages, as is the case in the Bundesliga league in Germany. That may take some time to come to the experimentation level.

The beauty of the `open air theatre' range is that the 50-metre range would be converted to a 25-metre range later, and the events have been scheduled accordingly.

The Halvala range, about 15 km from the sports centre and used for the shotgun events, has been refurbished and equipped with a pellet recovery system that meets the requirement of environment conscious world.

The double trap shooters, Major Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Moraad Ali Khan and Ronjan Sodhi were cheerful, and went about their task of training with intense concentration.

``It is good to be here a week in advance of our event. We had shot in the World Cup in Suhl, Germany, and reached here for practice. It is important to get used to the conditions, and it gives you a lot of confidence'', said Rathore, quite eager to make the maximum of the opportunity.

The background has been constructed for the shotgun events, in a bid to ensure that the pellets and the pieces of clay do not get scattered beyond a certain point. However, when the birds jump up, the shooters have a chance of missing it as it goes above into a different brighter background.

There will be no dearth of spectators as there would be around 2000 competitors and 1000 trainers from nearly 100 countries. Of course, there is a conscious attempt to meet the requirements of the spectators in terms of comfortable seats and technology that would keep them informed through the video boards and monitors.

With Prof. Sunny Thomas, the Indian national coach-cum-manager, busy with the responsibility of handling the big contingent, attending all the meetings and trying to ensure that the team gets informed about various aspects, there was a clear indication that it was unfair on the part of the government to have stopped the clearance of two officials. In fact, some of the shooters have been trying to assist the coach, as officials.

Meanwhile, it was interesting to strike a conversation with the erstwhile coach of the Indian rifle team, Laszlo Szucsak, as he directed the Japanese team. Anjali Vedpathak Bhagwat has been training with him for about a fortnight, albeit with manual targets at the army range.

Szucsak had words of praise for Anjali, not just for her cooking skills, as she had shown the Japanese contingent at the hostel, but on her becoming better for the 3-position event thanks mainly to the use of quality ammunition.

``The Japanese have ordered a big lot of ammunition for future use. But I can't say anything about the case of Anjali in this matter'', was the diplomatic observation of Szucsak.

It is indeed a mystery as to how the quality ammunition do not get selected for the national team back home, and that may require some investigation.

The indoor 10-metre range, another make-shift arrangement adjacent to the athletics stadium, was opened, after the shooters had been eyeing it with anxiety, making do with practice elsewhere. The range with 70 targets on one side, and the 10-target final arena, along with the unit for 10-metre running target looked set for a lively affair.

With the opening ceremony being held at the ice-hockey stadium, the ability of the Finnish people to take the sport to the people, in existing facilities, did call for appreciation.

The efficiency of such a system, and the ability of the people to make it a success, will only be known with the passage of time.

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