BHOPAL, 23 September 2006 — If world No. 1 trap-shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu is to be believed then there is going to be a turnaround in Indian fortunes in the next Olympics to be held in Beijing, China.
Shooters are the country’s brightest hopes for an Olympic medal.
Sandhu, who was in Bhopal to grace the prestigious Madhya Pradesh Sports Award presentation ceremony, told Arab News in an interview that India are capable of winning more than one shooting medal at the 2008 Games.
“There are five to six Indian shooters among the top five in the world and myself being in form to be part of a 12-member shooting team, then more than one of us would be right on target to fetch medals for the country,’’ Sandhu explained. “Earlier, no one could ever think of India having two world champions in shooting”, he said. Sandhu said the honeymoon of Indian shooters started from the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002, continued in Melbourne Commonwealth Games this year and hopefully-reach its climax in 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Sandhu has recently won a trap shooting gold medal in the World Cup Shooting Championship in Zagreb, Croatia, which helped him claim the No. 1 spot in world rankings. He won the bronze medal in the men’s trap event at the 2006 Commonwealth Games held at Melbourne.
Last week, Sandhu led the way as India swept all three medals at stake in the men’s individual trap event at the Asian Clay Shooting Championships in Singapore. Sandhu totaled 141 out of a maximum of 150 (120 in the five rounds and 21 in the final) to pip Mansher Singh (120+20) by one point and claim the gold medal. Anwer Sultan (119+19) was two points behind and had to settle for the bronze medal.
The Indian trio also won the team gold, setting a new Asian clay record of 359 points out of a possible 375. China was a distant second with 340, while Chinese Taipei claimed the bronze medal with 338 points.
Sandhu gave the credit for his success to his father Guruveer Singh, who was also a trap shooter, and his Italian coach Marcello Dradi.
The top marksman said shooting was no longer considered an elitist sport. ‘’The situation has improved over the past two years thanks to government patronage but patronage is required at grassroots level”, he added. He said shooting should receive A grade facilities at state level and sportspersons trained at district level. “I advocate subsidy on equipment and the corporate world should come forward.” He expressed his happiness that of late, cricket no longer overshadowed other sports like shooting and snooker in which India has excelled internationally. “It was lack of support from the media and government that shooting could not get required exposure in the past.”
However, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore’s silver medal changed that, he opined. He said now the government was also evincing interest in shooting. “I have had enough government support whenever I needed it,” he revealed.
Replying to a question he said foreign coaches are very expensive and the Indian coaches are no match to them. India being a poor country the government provides facilities only to top shooters who have proved their worth.
However, at the grassroots level there is no governmental support where the coaching and skill must match and the Indian coaches should be assigned the job at the district levels, he added.
Sandhu felt that connecting sports to employment would give impetus to professionalism.
When asked for his advice to the new upcoming generation he said: “Look to other sports also other than cricket and have faith in yourselves. Take sports as a career and not just as a hobby only to excel and make a mark”.
