NRAI justifies Rathore omission from squad

National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) on Tuesday justified their decision to leave out Athens Olympics silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore from the shooting squad for the London Games, saying his scores in the trials did not ‘inspire confidence’ in the selectors.

There has been pressure on the shooting body to swap the Olympic quota place won in the men's 50M rifle 3-position and include Rathore, who equalled the world record in the Asian Shotgun Championship late last year. NRAI, though, chose to go ahead with Heena Sidhu for the 10M air pistol event.

“We had to decide on who can win medals in which event,” NRAI President Raninder Singh told reporters. "The criterion for selection is performance at A-level tournaments. Heena is ranked 17th in international ranking out of 193 while Rathore is 47th and three Indians are ahead of him.

“His final score of 128 in the trials didn't inspire confidence in the selectors. The bias must be dispelled. We have been as transparent as humanely possible.. Merit has to be the sole criterion in a measurable sport.”

Raninder, however, said it is not the end of the road for Rathore. “The selection is not an in-house procedure done by the NRAI. We requested two government observers. We do not think, in any way, this is the end of Rathore's career. It is time for him to take stock and go further.”

Raninder revealed that nearly 13 crore have been invested on the training of shooters for the Olympics. Abhinav Bindra, Ronjan Sodhi, Manavjit Singh and Shagun Chowdhary have been training individually and their funds have been sanctioned under the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF).

Five shooters — Gagan Narang, Sanjeev Rajput, Rahi Sarnobat, Annuraj Singh and Vijay Kumar — will be training together.

Coaches Stanislav Lapidus (rifle), Anatoly Piddubny, Pavel Smirnov (pistol), Marcello Dradi
(shotgun), Heinz Reinkemier (rifle), Prof Sunny Thomas (National coach), Amarjang Singh (shotgun), Moraad Ali Khan (shotgun) will be travelling with the shooters to London.

“Eight officials per discipline are allowed to accompany the team. Normally it varies from 8-6 but it may be increased to 11. We have given 11 names to the IOA,” he said.

There has also been arrangement for the personal support staff of the shooters to accompany them. “Abhinav has asked for two coaches and one mental trainer. Vijay, Ronjan and Shagun have asked for one coach,” Raninder said.