The Hindu : Indian team confident

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 01, 2003

Sport

Sport - Shooting

Indian team confident

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 31. She had missed a medal and an Olympic quota by an agonising 0.3 point margin in the shooting World Cup in Fort Benning, U.S. Yet, Deepali Deshpande was not too upset about the miss, and took the disappointment in her stride, calling it an achievement, with a disarming smile.

"My aim was to put up a good score in the preliminaries and maintain my standard. I had shot a 394 in the Asian Games, 393 in the National championship, 397 in the National Games, and was shooting 397 and 398 in the trials. Maybe, I concentrated too much on the preliminary phase, and used the wrong technique in the final", said Deepali, even as the rest of the Indian shooters wound up their practice session at the Dr. Karni Singh Range in Tughlakabad on Saturday.

Dismissing the observation that she was perhaps not that well versed with the technique of shooting a final, for lack of experience at the international level, Deepali said that her confidence level was high and that she was doing very well in training, in which she shot a 104.5.

"During the final in Fort Benning, I was a bit confused and used the wrong technique. Now I am fine", said Deepali, who had shot a 398 out of 400 and was second behind Anjali as the eight shooters went into the final.

With Suma Shirur also making the women's air rifle final, it was a memorable exprience for the National coach Prof. Sunny Thomas in his long association with the Indian team.

"Anyone of them can get the quota. Even Poornima Gawhane can spring a surprise. There is only one more air rifle quota for us, as Anjali has taken the first, and there is some tension and a healthy competition in the team", observed Prof. Thomas.

"There is no problem, whether I get the quota or Suma does it, or someone else. We have to get the quota, and we are sure of doing it soon. I am confident about doing well in the 3-position event and can get the quota in it by the Asian Championship", said Deepali.

The trio of Anjali Vedpathak Bhagwat, Suma Shirur and Deepali Deshpande had won the air rifle silver in Busan Asian Games — one of the two medals from shooting for India, the other being the trap team's silver — and Anjali had missed an individual medal and the gold itself by a narrow margin then.

"I am looking forward to having a colleague to compete with in Athens. It is important. One of them is going to get it", said Anjali, quite relaxed and confident.

With a string of world class achievements that reached a crescendo with the air rifle gold in the World Cup in the U.S., Anjali felt that it was important to try out a few techniques in the next three World Cups rather than focus just on winning.

"I treat the rest of this year as a preparatory stage for the Olympics. I need to try out a few things, and be ready to handle the tension. I am not expecting any more results. The idea is to perform well in 2004", said Anjali, quite clear about her priorities.

In fact, Anjali was planning to skip the World Cup in Korea, but the postponement of the Asian Championship to next year, forced Anjali to alter her plans.

"I plan to compete only in four important events in a year. Otherwise, I may lose the hunger to do well. I want to go into the Olympics with all the eagerness to excel", said Anjali.

With the visa formalities having been completed both for Croatia and Germany, where the two World Cups are scheduled to be held one after the other from June 4, the National coach was able to breathe easy, without much tension.

"We are ten of us leaving from here on Sunday night. Abhinav Bindra will be joining us from the U.S. in Frankfurt. Two of the juniors who are competing in Suhl at the moment, Gagan Narang and Sandeep Tarate, may not be able to get the visa in time to shoot in Zagreb. They will join us in Munich. Ronak Pandit will try to get his visa and rush for his competition in Croatia", said Prof. Thomas.

Poornima Gawhane, Rajkumari Dodiya, Samaresh Jung, Sameer Ambekar and Jaspal Rana will be the other members of the Indian team, while Bala Shanmugam will accompany Prof. Thomas as the manager.

"We could not take Jaspal to the World Cup in the U.S., as he did not have the scores to back his claim. Now he is showing a lot of interest and shooting decent scores. He has the talent and can get an air pistol quota if he puts his mind on the job 100 per cent and trains hard", said Prof. Thomas.

Equally, the National coach was pretty confident that Abhinav would get the quota in air rifle, and that the 19-year-old was doing all the right things and was quite sure about his approach and methods.

Samaresh had shot a 574 with a borrowed pistol in Fort Benning, ten points below his best in air pistol, as his equipment had been misplaced by the airlines. He got his equipment just before his return from the U.S., and will be keen to get into the competitive rhythm both in free-pistol and air pistol.

Overall, it should be an exciting experience to keep track of the shooters in the two World Cups over the next fortnight. One more Olympic quota may not be too much to hope for.

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