Ahead of the Tokyo Olympics where Indian shooters drew a crushing blank, the entire contingent spent two months cooped up in Croatia in a competition-cum-training phase ahead of the Games. While that was partially necessitated due to the Covid pandemic in 2021, it played a factor in the jaded shooters’ shocker in Tokyo.
The “big change” this time leading up to the 2024 Olympics, as national rifle coach Suma Shirur put it, is that the shooters will fly to Paris from home after getting some time to recharge ahead of the mega event.
India’s shooters have already bagged a record 19 quota places for the July-August Games so far. The domestic Olympic trials, which will determine who gets selected in each event, will be held between April-end and mid-May, after which the shooters will head to Munich for the ISSF World Cup (rifle and pistol) from May 31 to June 8. That will be the lone tournament where the Paris-bound shooters will compete. They will then have a short training camp in Germany and return to India to refresh mentally before flying to Paris, said Shirur.
“After the Olympic trials, we’ll be going to the Munich World Cup, which is the first and the last competition where the team gets a chance to be comfortable in the shoes of being an Olympian,” Shirur said on Wednesday at the launch of the 14th RR Lakshya Cup, which will be held in Navi Mumbai over the weekend.
“After the World Cup, we will have a short training camp in Germany. Shooters will have the chance to come back (to India) and emotionally recover, recharge and rejuvenate before we have a small camp and then fly to the Games. This is the plan of action, which gives enough time to the athletes for their rest and recovery before they head for the Games. That’s the big change this time.
“Tokyo (Olympics) was a completely different ballgame. There were many decisions that had to be taken looking at certain circumstances around the pandemic. In hindsight, they weren’t probably the best decisions in terms of peaking at the Olympics,” added the former rifle shooter who competed in the 2004 Olympics.
With hefty quotas in the bag and the high of last year’s Asian Games (shooting accounted for India’s 22 medals), the focus shifts on ensuring an efficient build-up to the Games that gives the shooters the best shot at peaking when and where it matters. India’s rifle shooters have been especially clinical in securing quotas early.
“The shooters are in a very good zone now, so now it’s about sharpening things as we move forward,” Shirur said. “Most of the work has been done since last year. Now, we just need to fine tune them and focus on how to perform. Self-regulation is one of the most important aspects we are going to be working on going forward, because no matter how you feel, you still need to be able to go out there and perform. In that sense, we are hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.”