TOPGUNS: These 12 men and women represent India’s best chances of winning medals at Rio

Sabi Hussain

This slight, gentle, shy man, Nepalese Gurkha by birth and Indian Armyman by choice, represents India’s shooting hopes. Over the last three years especially, Rai’s star has risen and shone bright. The Indian squad has many veterans who’re hopeful of striking metal at Rio, but Rai is the man everyone is keeping their eyes on.

Since the turn of the millennium, shooting has emerged as India’s biggest medal hope at the Olympics. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won silver in 2004, Abhinav Bindra followed it up sensationally with gold in Beijing 2008. In London 2012, Vijay Kumar (silver) and Gagan Narang (bronze) raised the bar by clinching two medals for the country.

This time 12 shooters have qualified for the Olympics, up from 11 at London. It’s a fine mix of experience and youth.

Bindra will be making his fifth Olympics appearance, while Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Gagan Narang will be competing in their fourth. Heena Sidhu, who competed in the 10m air pistol event in London, would spearhead the women’s challenge. Then there are also first-time Olympians in the squad, including Rai, Chain Singh, Kynan Chenai, Mairaj Ahmed Khan, Gurpreet Singh, Apurvi Chandela, Ayonika Paul and Prakash Nanjappa. Nanjappa is the oldest Indian marksman to make an Olympics debut.

Strong potential

All the squad members have the wherewithal to last the distance on their day, not one can be termed as the weak link. But bear this in mind — shooting is one sport in which nothing is certain. One bad shot, one slight tremor of the finger, a momentary lapse in concentration can result in disaster. 

Bindra and Narang know how it’s done, and they would look to sign off on a high. Bindra has announced that Rio will be his swansong Olympics; Narang and Sandhu, too, could be nearing the end of their Olympics journey. 

Bindra, who’ll be the Indian contingent’s flag-bearer at Rio, has pushed himself to the limit in search of another medal, even though he’d declared two years ago that he’d be just a “hobby shooter”. But he’s a very intense man — he’s likely to take even hobbies as a matter of life and death. Bindra, training in Munich, would wish to erase the bad memories of London, where he could not make the final.

Narang wants to win another Olympics medal, and he’s going to have three shots at medals — 50m rifle three positions, 50m rifle and 10m air rifle. After winning silver and bronze at the Glasgow CWG, his performance has dipped, but he hopes his training under Kazakh coach Stanislas Lapidus will help him win at least one medal at Rio.   

Sandhu, a six-time Asian champion, got lucky. He’d failed to secure a Rio berth in the qualifiers, but was selected in place of two-time Olympian Sanjeev Rajput owing to his consistent scores in the selection trials. Rajput had won the quota from the Asian Qualifiers in New Delhi, but as per the ISSF’s Olympics policy, a country is allowed to swap one quota place with another event and the NRAI’s selection committee decided to reward Sandhu for his excellent form.

Little big man

Despite the presence of these megastars, the biggest medal hope remains Rai. Hailing from Nepal, Rai moved to India in 2006 to join the Gurkha Regiment. He took the shooting world by storm when he clinched astonishing seven medals in 2014, including three from World Cups. The diminutive 29-year-old is very much in reach of a double medal haul in the 10m air pistol and 50m pistol events. His recent form suggests that he is peaking at the right time. He won a gold at the World Cup in Bangkok in March, followed by a silver in Baku World Cup last month. This was his sixth medal at the World Cup in the last three years. 

Mairaj is the current world No. 9 in skeet. He rose to fame by winning India its first skeet medal (silver) at a World Cup, in Rio. Gurpreet Singh (rapid fire) is a double CWG gold medallist, while Nanjappa was a silver medallist at Glasgow.

Women with guns

No Indian markswoman has won an Olympics medal so far. But the three shooters in the fray could break this jinx. Sidhu, who narrowly missed on making the 10m air pistol final at London, would like to make amends. The 26-year-old is the current world record holder in her event and bagged the gold in the Delhi qualifiers after beating a strong field. Chandela is considered the next big thing in women’s 10m air rifle. The 23-year-old Jaipur girl burst on the senior circuit with a gold at the Glasgow CWG. Since then, she has made rapid strides, bagging a silver at the World Cup Final in Munich and qualifying for Rio with a bronze at the World Cup in Korea.  Paul, who clinched the quota place with a silver in the Delhi qualifiers, has been training under 2002 Manchester CWG gold medallist and Olympian Suma Shirur in Mumbai. Paul has also won a silver at the Glasgow CWG.

Difficult part

For the first time, background music would be played during the qualification and the finals in Olympics. This could cause some uneasiness to the Indian shooters, although they have been training accordingly. Another problem is that the outdoor shooting range — 25 m and 50m — could be very windy.

Shooting at Rio

Number of Gold medals

15 = 9 men + 6 women

Event Dates

August 6 to 14 

Indian angle

India will have 12 shooters in the Rio field — 9 men and 3 women. They will compete in the Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun events