India’s highly anticipated shooting campaign turned out to be a big failure with highly seeded likes of Abhishek Verma, Saurabh, and Manu failing to bring back any form of medal for the nation. The nation has also been disappointed by the below par performance of Divyansh and Elavenil in the Rifle Events. But with India sending one of its most prolific and talented shooting contingents and yet failing we definitely need to ponder on what went wrong, isn’t it?
Manu Bhaker’s weapon malfunction: –
A young and talented prospect who was one of the nation’s biggest hopes failed due to one of the silliest reasons. With the weapon failure having a frequency of once in 1000 times, the malfunction at such a grand event shattered Manu!! In her 25m air pistol event, Manu stood 5th at qualification but failed to show consistency and ended 15th. In the mixed event for 10m alongside Saurabh, Bhaker stood 7th. And in the most awaited 10m pistol, she faced the above-mentioned nightmare of a malfunction.
Saurabh Chaudhary and Abhishek failing on Day 1: –
World Number 1 seeded Abhishek Verma failed to make the cut in the qualification round itself. #17 was Abhishek’s rank after the first round. In the mixed team event of the 10m Air Pistol, he along with Yashaswini Deswal has ranked #17 again. Saurabh ranked World Number 2 on the other hand too, failed in the final round. It is definitely sure that this dynamic duo didn’t perform to their potential! This upset definitely might have sent chills down the spine of the other Indians as the top-ranked Shooters, too failed.
Shooters and Coaches not on terms: –
Jaspal Rana, Manu Bhaker’s coach had differences with his disciple. “I am very sorry, but he never dumped me. The federation took the decision because I told them and they also realized that everything was going negative with my life. The people whom I trusted the most tried to pull me down maybe because of some personal benefits. I was asked to pull back on my face. There was a lot of negativities in my life,” Manu Bhaker told India Today.
Elavenil and Divyansh failing to reach podium: –
Coming in from Air Pistol to Air Rifle, Elavenil Valarivan was one of India’s front runners for a medal. Alongside her, Divyansh Singh, her partner for the Mixed Team event too was a supreme contender. Divyansh ended #32 after the qualification round in the 10m Air Rifle. Elavenil ended her campaign at #16 in the same event as Divyansh in the women’s category. The mixed team event ended with them ranked #12.
In inference, I would say that although this seemed to be a false show, it was a big gain for the athletes. The experience they gained was second to none. And with them aged 19-20, the future of Indian Shooting seems to be in safe hands!!!