Jaspal Rana, Deepali Deshpande return as shooting coaches

Jaspal Rana and Deepali Deshpande have returned as coaches to India’s shooting team. The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) announced on Saturday a list of names who have been appointed to several positions of the national team.

Deepali, whose trainee Swapnil Kusale won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, has been reinstated as the head coach of the rifle team. Meanwhile, Rana, who coached Manu Bhaker to two Olympic bronze medals in the 10m air pistol and mixed team event alongside Sarabjot Singh, has been appointed as the high-performance coach of the 25m team.

Interestingly, both Deepali and Rana were snubbed by the NRAI at their felicitation function, where all the coaches, including former high performance director Pierre Beauchamp, received cash awards.

Notably, the duo had been removed from the coaching roster following a disastrous Rio Olympics, where none of the shooters came close to winning a medal. At the time, then-NRAI president Raninder Singh had publicly blamed Rana for the fiasco.

Following its governing body meeting, the NRAI has appointed 16 new coaches while retaining 19 from the previous roster.

The new team of coaches include former pistol ace Jitu Rai (10m Air Pistol), former international Pooja Ghatkar (10m Air Rifle), Pemba Tamang (25m Pistol), Amarinder Cheema (Skeet) and Varsha Tomar (Trap).

Additionally, Mansher Singh and Ronak Pandit have been named high-performance managers for the shotgun and pistol teams, respectively. Other high-performance coaches include DS Chandel (Air Rifle), Anwer Sultan (Trap), and Manoj Kumar (50m Rifle). 

Meanwhile, Vikram Chopra and Samaresh Jung have been retained as head coaches of the shotgun and pistol team, respectively.