Indians shoot low as mixed gender team event makes WC entry

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 25

The Day 2 of the ISSF World Cup at the Karni Singh shooting complex has had its own significance. It was for the very first time that a mixed gender team competition was played out on a global stage. 

The concept was first introduced at the European Championships last year, but majority of the world’s top shooters, including that from India, had skipped the tournament. 

So, when the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) decided to introduce the mixed gender events at the season-opening World Cup here, the former and reigning Olympics, World, Asian and Commonwealth champions made a beeline to the national capital to get the first-hand experience of the revolutionary step, which has the potential to change the dynamics of the shooting as a sport. 

The first event to make its debut as the mixed gender team competition was the 10m air rifle, which has replaced 50m rifle prone men. 

The other two events which have been replaced by the ISSF as the mixed gender team competitions are the double trap and the 50m pistol men 

While the former has been replaced by the trap event, 50m pistol men gave way to 10m air pistol. 

Excitement all around 

There was excitement, with a hint of nervousness among the participants when the qualification stage started. According to the rules, every participating nation had to field a man and a woman shooter, with the woman shooter opening the shot series. 

India had fielded two teams — Deepak Kumar and Meghna Sajjanar and Ravi Kumar and Vineeta Bhardwaj, — but, sadly, both got eliminated in the qualification stage. 

Deepak and Meghna finished 10th, while Ravi and Vineeta had to contend with a distant 18th place. 

China’s Buhan Song and Mingyang Wu secured the top position in the final, while Japan’s Atsushi Shimada and Ayano Shimizu and China’s Mengyao Shi and Gengcheng Sui settled for the second and third position, respectively. 

The winners were awarded gold, silver and bronze badges, respectively, instead of the customary medals since the mixed gender team events have been included in the World Cup as “test events”.

Not a great idea 

But, after the competition, the participating shooters didn’t look convinced. A majority of the shooters were of the view that the idea would just make the sport more spectator-friendly, and the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) purpose of promoting gender equality wouldn’t be served. 

“You talk about the gender equality…. This is how you are going to achieve it, by scrapping the rifle prone and double trap events. These have been two most popular disciplines in the Olympics history, but the administrators are hell bent on destroying the very fabric of the shooting,” said five-time Olympian and multiple World Cup medallist Peter Sidi of Hungary.

“It’s not a real event. Nobody knows what’s happening,” added Sidi, who finished fifth at Rio.

Australia’s chief rifle coach, Petr Kurka, felt that if the spectators weren’t talking about it after the event, then it had no business to continue. “People should talk about it instead of just sit, clap and go home. When you see one shooter do well and his teammate mess up the hard work, you end up comparing. What’s your fault if your teammate isn’t shooting well. At the end, the scores of both would be taken into account. From a spectator’s point of view, this is good,” he said.

India’s Deepak, who was the first among the country’s shooters to experience the change, had mixed feelings. “Meghna and I were concentrating on our own scores. There was no interaction between any of the shooters during the loading and unloading of guns. Sometimes, I was shooting 10.3, 10.4 and she was shooting in the range of 9.7 and 9.8. So, that way I really don’t know is it good or bad?” he said.

Event to stay 

But, ISSF vice-president Franz Schreiber said the world body wouldn’t go back on its decision. “The World Cup Finals in Delhi in October will have a full-fledged medal round in the mixed gender team competitions. The next three World Cups will also have test events with a possibility of minor modifications in the playing rule. But, from the next World Cup cycle starting 2018, the mixed gender events will become a permanent fixture,” he said.

Use of laser guns

He also rubbished suggestions that the ISSF had been planning to introduce the laser guns instead of an air pistol at the future Olympic Games. This after the IOC apparently told the ISSF that the shooting portion of the Modern Pentathlon had already approved the change. 

“It’s rubbish. It’s purely gossip mongering. It’s a rumour spread by some member federations. Nothing has ever been discussed in any of the ISSF Executive or Council meetings. There are no plans as such,” he set the record straight. 

However, it has been learnt that a meeting between the ISSF and IOC had taken place in this regard last February. 

During the meeting, the IOC apparently encouraged the ISSF to give a serious consideration for developing laser shooting as a new discipline in future. However, the ISSF said it could take years to develop such a discipline.