One sport in India which has faced enormous criticism for failing to win medals at two successive Olympics (Rio and Tokyo) is shooting. Three medals from Paris 2024 has made people believe the sport is back on the rails and more glory can be achieved in the next Olympic cycle. In an exclusive chat with RevSportz on Monday, Kalikesh Singh Deo, recently elected President of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), opened up on the blueprint ahead.
“There is no scope or room for just resting on laurels won in Paris 2024. We have the ISSF World Cup Finals in New Delhi in October and will soon be into the next Olympic cycle for LA 2028, planning has begun,” said Kalikesh. It is a big relief that Indian shooting bounced back in Chateauroux, the venue for the Paris Olympics. In an open space, which was a World War II hangar, the ranges had been built, at a venue 275km from Paris.
Kalikesh, who was deputy chef de mission for the Olympics said the worry is not really about the elite athletes but tapping into the grassroot level. “We are one federation with tight selection procedures and trials which test the best. And the way we have seen fresh talent being thrown up, the team can change every six months,” he said.
And Kalikesh was not exaggerating. The process of trials and then the OST – Olympic Selection Trials – before the Olympics was very hard. But that is the same method used even in Europe. “We see enough talent emerging but where we need to build on is at the lower levels. We have depth and talent, it has to be nurtured,” said Kaikiesh. He talked of the high performance centres at the Karni Singh Ranges in New Delhi and the Bhopal Centre but felt a lot more needs to be done.
“We need to focus on more high performance centres. The ranges in Chennai are good and the centre we have set up in Trivandrum with the help of the Kerala Government is also important. I am looking at more high performance centres in the East as well as the North East, that’s important,” stated the NRAI President. The roadmap, according to Kalikesh, is two-pronged, focus on elite athletes as well as build on the future. “I have requested the Central Government to set up a junior development programme again. The last one we had with Jaspal Rana as coach gave us results,” he said.
At the same time, Kalikesh spoke on how the shooting clubs all over India need to be monitored. “State associations affiliated to the NRAI will need to monitor which academies are doing well and identify talent. We can then support those shooters, through CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). We do get a lot of queries from corporates,” revealed Kalikesh. He agrees that one cannot go to the government for everything but the success from the Olympics is making people more aware. Minus corporate funding, shooting will find it tough as it is an expensive sport, by nature.
As regards to developing the coaching system and relying more on home coaches, he said the plan will be to send Indian coaches abroad for programmes under the ISSF (world shooting). “We need a more solid coaching system in India and focus on producing more quality coaches. It will take time,” said the NRAI President. At the same time, he also does recognise the efforts put in by the ‘private’ coaches, a term hated by gurus like Deepali Deshpande and Jaspal Rana. Both have worked for Indian shooting which saw Manu Bhaker and Swapnil Kushale win medals in Paris 2024. “The bigger goal is one day India can have its own HPD (high performance director),” is what Kalikesh Singh Deo feels.
Kalikesh also spoke on how support for the sport of shooting will grow and they will also work on more events at home. “We will host the next Mavalankar Championship in Chennai and Trivandrum,” he said. This event serves as a pre-Nationals, where entries run into nearly a thousand. More shooting events at the state level will also be conceived, once the infrastructure is in place. Building high performance centres overnight is not easy but the NRAI wants to take it up on priority.
Looking at the selection policy to be formulated from 2025, the NRAI is going to wait. “The policy will be well-thought out and the NRAI can take credit for continuous trials which have been beneficial. Depending on what the ISSF plans are from 2025, we will keep in mind and plan our selection criteria. The current policy can definitely be tweaked,” he said.
Unlike many sports at home, where the same set of champions are repeated, Kalikesh is hopeful that by the next Asian Games in 2026 (Nagoya, Japan), many new shooters will emerge. That has been seen even in the last two years. His thoughts on Manu Bhaker, who wants to aim for medals in the LA 2028 Olympics. “She is mentally very tough,” noted Kalikesh.
In other news celebrating the Olympic Athletes:
🚨 It was a gala night at the Ambani Residence on Sunday to celebrate the success of India’s Paris Olympics and Paralympics athletes.
Athletes and Bollywood artists celebrated together.@ishaanshahane11 takes you through the event.@WeAreTeamIndia @PCI_IN_Official @Paris2024… pic.twitter.com/sLZ11sjBsI
— RevSportz Global (@RevSportzGlobal) September 30, 2024
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