Date:06/10/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/10/06/stories/2004100608591800.htm

Sport - Shooting

Ideal stage to keep their focus

By Kirti Patil

INDORE, OCT. 5. With Athens Olympics behind them, and the next big international event five months away, the 48th National championships, beginning here tomorrow, will offer the shooters the right stage to maintain their focus.

Set against the backdrop of a green hummock of the Reoti mountain ranges, the BSF shooting ranges, at its foothill, is an ideal venue for the rifle, pistol and big-bore Nationals. The trap and skeet ranges, had they been available, could have made the setting complete.

The absence of trap and skeet ranges here has robbed the meet of its sheen. However, Maj. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore's silver medal winning performance in the Athens Olympics has spurred the Border Security Force (BSF) to go in for expansion of the facility.

"It was high time that we also had trap and skeet ranges to make our facility here one of its kind,'' said Mohinder Lal, former international shooter, and DIG and Commandant BSF at the Central School of Weapon and Tactics (CSWT).

Incidentally, this year's National shotgun championships will be held at the Dr. Karni Singh Ranges in Delhi from November 23 to 27.

Though the shooting season has almost ended, but for the ISSF World Cup rifle and pistol finals in Bangkok (October 25-31), more than 350 shooters have entered in the fray here. Only two Indian shooters have qualified for the World Cup finals, rifles shooters Anjali Bhagwat and Suma Shirur. This means, the rest will have to wait for the Commonwealth shooting championship in Melbourne (March 9-20, 2005) for their next international exposure.

Notable absentees

Not unexpectedly, there are just two notable absentees at the Nationals here. While Anjali has decided to take a well-deserved rest after going through four years of competitions and preparation leading up to Athens Games, Abhinav Bindra is back to his training base in the U.S.

All other Olympians, including Suma, Deepali Deshpande and Ronak Pandit, are here to make the event a success. This group of Olympians is a class apart. There are some fringe shooters, wedded to the sport, and as keen to perform at their best in the company of the Olympians.

And then, there will be Nana Patekar, the film actor, who is aiming to make shooting a full time passion. Just a year after taking up the sport seriously, Patekar qualified in the 50m free rifle prone event at the Mavlankar championships in Coimbatore. On Wednesday, he will try his hand in 300m big bore free rifle prone qualification, which could not be conducted in Coimbatore due to lack of such long ranges.

"I am still a `sub-junior' in shooting. Let's see what I can do in my maiden appearance in the National championship,'' said Patekar on Tuesday.

Besides setting up ISSF standard air-conditioned ranges in 50m, 25m and 10m, the BSF has come up with both 300m and 500m ISSF class ranges for the big bore events. The earlier problem of proper lighting on the targets at the 50m and 25m ranges has been rectified and it should help shooters go for good scores.

Besides the qualification for big bore events on Wednesday, the main championships start with pistol events, free pistol and air pistol for men and sports pistol for women.

The best part of the entire set up is the `Nishanebaz village', a cluster of tents with all basic facilities for the shooters to stay at the ranges, about 15 kms from the city on Indore-Ujjain highway.