India’s problem of plenty in the rifle and pistol events is likely to give selectors a headache when they sit down to select teams for the postponed Olympics.
One primary question is whether World Championship silver medallist Anjum Moudgil will be able to retain her berth in air rifle or will the selectors instead opt for former World Champion and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Tejaswini Sawant.
“You try to give your best every time. You cannot think, ‘this is not my strong event. Let me wait and get it in my event’,” was Anjum’s counter to the question.
Irony
Anjum has shot a world record 1180 out of 1200 in the 50m rifle 3-position event, but the irony is that she could not compete in the regular team in any of the World Cups, as the team was searching for an Olympic quota which she was ineligible to win. After Sunidhi Chauhan, Gaayathri Nithyanandam and Kajal Saini failed, it was Tejaswini who nailed the Olympic quota in the 3P event.
Olympian Deepali Deshpande, the Indian team’s high performance rifle coach, put things in perspective. “Anjum is experienced and in good form. Postponement is an advantage for her. In air rifle, 2019 was all about changing technique, equipment and getting over injury. Still she could maintain her ranking,” said Deepali.
With Apurvi Chandela winning two World Cup gold medals it has generally been perceived that Elavenil Valarivan and Mehuli Ghosh could fight for the second spot in women’s air rifle.
Two planes
“The national federation and the selection committee will be thinking a lot on these aspects. I feel that we have to be very careful as we will be working on two planes. One is 2020 Olympics being held in 2021, and the other is 2024. Some of the shooters will be front runners for 2024. If we drag them into this selection, we may lose them even for 2024,” cautioned Deepali, even as she pointed the high scores of 1170 or more of Tejaswini. “With Olympic quota points she is second to Anjum only,” she added.
