Rana doesn’t want Anish in senior team for the Worlds

Vinayak Padmadeo

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 16

Pistol shooter Anish Bhanwala may not be part of the senior shooting squad for the ISSF World Championships, scheduled to be held in Changwon, South Korea. The Worlds will be the first competition where the quotas for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be granted. In all, 48 individual and 12 mixed team quotas will be assigned in Korea.

The 16-year-old Bhanwala, who hails from Karnal, is the second-ranked shooter in the 25metre Rapid Fire competition behind Shivam Shukla. However, chief coach of the junior team, Jaspal Rana, believes that the youngster has a better chance of winning a medal in the junior competition that will run simultaneously in Korea. “I don’t think he has a chance of making the final of the senior competition at the World Championships,” said Rana. “There is no doubt about his ability but we have to be realistic about his chances. I think we will lose a medal in the junior category if we select him in the senior squad. Of course there is no guarantee of a medal in any competition but I think he has a better chance among the juniors.” Rana, though, said he will relax his stand if the selection committee insists on Bhanwala’s participation in the senior completion.

Trials after June 24?

As of now, the date to select the squads for the 2018 Asian Games and for the World Championships hasn’t been decided but the selection committee is likely to name the squads after June 24 when the fifth selection trials get over in New Delhi. The junior team, though, may be announced after the completion of Meeting of the Shooting Hopes, scheduled to be held in Plzen, the Czech Republic, from July 11 to July 15.