New Delhi, March 15 (IANS) The final preparation camp for India’s shooting squad ahead of the international shooting season, which includes the ISSF World Cup stages in Argentina and Peru, started at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range (DKSSR) near here on Saturday. Almost all the 35 members of the national squad, barring a few exceptions, reported on Friday (reporting day) itself and began hard training under the respective coaches from Saturday morning.

The first batch of shooters will leave for the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, the venue of the year’s first International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun to be held from April 1 to 11) stage, on March 26.

The South American leg continues thereafter in Lima, Peru, where the second ISSF combined World Cup stage will be hosted from April 13 to 22.

As reported earlier, double Olympic bronze medallist Manu Bhaker will be the only Indian athlete to start in two individual events, the women’s 10m air pistol and the women’s 25m pistol. The Indian shooters will compete in 15 events across the disciplines of rifle, pistol, and shotgun, including 12 individual and three mixed-team events.

“It is the first national camp of the year, so the main focus will be to first assess various improvement areas for various individuals. There are many seasoned national campers, so their strengths and improvement areas are mostly familiar. The new Shooters will get more focus,” said Dronacharya awardee coach Deepali Deshpande, who is now the Head Coach of the squad.

Like first-time national campers among shooters, there were also first-timers among coaches and decorated past international shooters like Jitu Rai and Pooja Ghatkar, who were seen trying to settle into their new roles as national coaches quickly.

Among the new shooters was national Air Rifle women’s champion Ananya Naidu, clearly excited to be at the camp, saying, “Yes, it is wonderful. Although I have shot with all of them before in domestic competitions, but still to be around such great coaches and performers and getting focused time to pick their brains, is a wonderful feeling. I will try to absorb and learn as much as I can.”

India has a proud record in recent times in ISSF tournaments and even in the previous year which saw a trimmed ISSF calendar given it was an Olympic year, they had topped the medal tally in the opening combined World Cup stage in Cairo, Egypt, before going on to record a historic and unprecedented three medal performance at the Paris Olympics.

This year, the world’s top shooters will be aiming mainly for the World Championships scheduled for October (Shotgun) and November (Rifle/Pistol). There will be a total of three World Cup stages for each discipline while two junior world cups, the second among them in New Delhi in September, are also scheduled. Also, on the international roster this year is the 16th Asian Championships in Kazakhstan in August.

–IANS

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