Dradi, Falco to return as shotgun coaches

Vinayak Padmadeo

New Delhi, July 5

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) is in the process of appointing Marcello Dradi and Ennio Falco as coaches of the trap and skeet teams, respectively.

The NRAI has already sent in a draft of the contracts to both and they are expected to agree on the terms. Further, the NRAI has already planned a training camp, most likely in Massari, Italy, ahead of the World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, in August. NRAI secretary general K Sultan Singh said that the coaches are favourites to take the vacant positions.

“Marcelo is most likely to take up the role again,” Singh told The Tribune. “There were a few other applicants as well for trap but we are considering him as he knows the shooters and the working environment in India. The same thing is with Falco. Our teams have done well under them so it will be good when they join,” he added.

Other than Dradi, Australian legend Michael Diamond, who won gold medals at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, and Scot George Wood were also in discussion to take over the trap team.

Dradi had left in 2016 following his third stint in India since 2005 after a falling out with the Indian coaches. Falco had resigned in 2020 over a disagreement. He had insisted on veto authority to select at least one shooter in the team. Interestingly, he had sent his resignation letter on the same day that he received an email from the Sports Authority of India indicating that his contract was to be extended.

Skeet coach Piero Genga had left his role after it was made clear to him that his contract, which ran out in March, would not be extended as a lot of shooters were not happy with his performance. Trap coach Russell Mark and high performance manager Lauryn Mark, who took over the coaching duties of the skeet team after Genga resigned in May during the ISSF World Cup, resigned recently after they were put off by the delay in the contract negotiations and their long-standing disagreements with the high performance director Pierre Beauchamp.