Gun-crazy

Vinayak Padmadeo

Anish Bhanwala must be cursing his luck. Anish, who at 15 is already a national champion in the Rapid Fire pistol event, is like any other teenager. On the shooting range, the boy has a junior world record in his name in standard pistol competition, to go with the Junior World Championship gold medal. At the same championship, which was held in Suhl, Germany, Anish bagged a silver medal in the rapid fire competition.

Normally a disciplined boy, Anish sometimes falls for his number one weakness, ice-cream. Wednesday was once such day, but he was caught — rather, he was ratted out by his sister, Muskan. A word about Muskan: She stunned everyone except national coach Jaspal Rana when she won the 25m pistol competition in the ISSF Junior World Cup in Sydney.

A mere nudge from the coach and she told Rana: “Anish has gone to buy ice cream.” Anish was duly punished for this infringement as he needs to watch his weight.

The 16-year-old had to buy ice-cream for the entire pistol team. So a mere $5 expense shot up and became a $50 headache for the boy from Karnal. Lesson learned, punishment served — this is how the pistol team management rolls. Discipline comes first, not matter what.

Flag first

There is one more thing. The shooters aren’t allowed to wear anything other than the team gear. The rule is strictly adhered to, unlike the flashy part of the Indian shooting contingent, the shot-gunners, who have been known to show off.

“I was a notorious person in the team while I was shooting,” Rana told Tribune over phone from Sydney. “So catching them comes easy to me. On most days I am a step ahead of them. I’m an easy guy but when it comes to discipline, etiquette and shooting standards, we don’t make any comprise.”

Depth in the squad

Muskan may have raised a few eyebrows back in the country, but for the coaching staff her gold was a good result, even at the expense of Manu Bhaker suffering her first setback at the international stage.

Manu shot into the spotlight by winning a gold medal in Air Pistol earlier this month at the Guadalajara World Cup. She then pocketed two gold medals, one in air pistol and then in the mixed team event, with Anmol at the Junior World Cup in Sydney. The wins made her a firm favourite for the 25m pistol event in Sydney. But this time the Jhajjar girl faltered a bit and finished fourth. And Rana isn’t complaining.

Lesson for Manu

“This is a good lesson for Manu, with the Commonwealth Games coming up. Not doing well is also part of the learning curve,” Rana explained. “For Muskan, it is a good confidence-booster. The result also tells everyone that the Indian shooting team is not dependant on one or two individuals.”

Shotgun follows suit

Cut to the shotgun ranges, the situation is a bit different. Big guns merge amidst a sea of big cars and big egos. But the new chief coach, Mansher Singh, is trying to bring a few changes to the training routine.

In the job for only a month, Mansher, commonly known as ‘Joey’ on the ranges, has got down to business. The shot-gunners were hauled to the Karni Singh Shooting ranges from March 15, a day after the Mexico World Cup ended.

The teams started with the pre-shot routine, which is how they get ready to shoot each and every target, and then moved on to working a lot on shooting for the finals.

“We also had lengthy days of trainings, where sometimes they were shooting 250 cartridges a day to build stamina,” Mansher explained. “Now we are in the peaking mode so that by the time the CWG happens, we are ready.” But once that is done, the four-time Olympian, whose shooting career lasted for over three decades, wants to bring about a synergy between the junior and senior training programmes. “My main target is to try and get as many juniors into contention for senior slots because only then we will have a vibrant system which will give us stand out results,” Mansher said. 

Veterans

Jitu Rain must shoot a medal at Gold Coast — this is the first multi-sport event for the diminutive giant of Indian shooting, who was the country’s best bet for a medal at the Rio Olympics two years ago. But he finished 14th in 50m pistol, 8th in 10m pistol. His dream of an Olympics medal was shattered. Two years before the Tokyo Olympics is the right time for him to start the dream afresh. Heena Sindhu doesn’t have an individual Commonwealth Games gold medal yet. There’s strong competition in the women’s team — in the wings are Manu Bhaker and Annu Singh, among others. 

Test yourself!

Below is the actual target for the 50m shooters. Cut this out and paste it on a wall, and stand, say, 20m away — you’ll figure out how tough it must be to hit the inner-most circle. The shooters, of course, have the benefit of gunsights, but  it’s still very tough

Jitu Rai

The most consistent podium finisher in the current shooting team. This serial World Cup medallist will defend his 50m pistol gold from the Glasgow Games. But his real focus would be to be on the podium of the air pistol event.

Anjum Moudgil

The Chandigarh girl is in red-hot form at the right time, winning silver in the 50m 3 Positions event at the ISSF World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico. A late bloomer in her own words, Anjum credits team coach Deepali Deshpande for her improved performances in the last year.

Mehuli Ghosh

A prodigy from the Joydeep Karmakar academy, Mehuli won a memorable bronze in her very first senior international tournament in the 10m Air Rifle competition in Mexico. She equalled the Junior World Record with her qualifying score of 629.1.

Gagan Narang

The rifle ace needs no introduction — the London Olympics bronze medal winner will compete only in the prone event in this year’s edition. This would be the fourth CWG for the 34-year-old, and like Jitu he is a perennial favourite to climb the podium. Narang, who hails from Simla Gujran village of Panipat district, won four gold medals at the 2010 CWG. In the men's 10m air rifle singles event, he shot a perfect 600, a new record.

Ankur Mittal

2017 was a phenomenal year for Ankur. He won a maiden World Cup gold in Acapulco to go with silver medal finishes at the New Delhi World Cup and World Championship in Mexico.

5 days to go 

Shooting preview 

We start the countdown to the CWG by previewing Shooting, in which the hopes have risen high due to the emergence of new talent

Key facts

India’s best bet

On offer: 19 gold, silver and bronze each — 57 medals in all

India’s hopes: India had won 17 out of 57 medals in 2014, 30 out of 100 in 2010. Expect a good haul at Gold Coast — 15 medals is an expected number, 5 of them gold

Shooting Squads

Men 

Chain Singh 50m Rifle 3P, 50m Rifle Prone

Kynan Chenai Trap

Ravi Kumar 10m Air Rifle

Ankur Mittal Double Trap

Jitu Rai 10m Air Pistol, 50m Pistol

Sanjeev Rajput 50m Rifle 3P 

Sheeraz Sheikh Skeet

Gagan Narang 50m Rifle 3P 

Deepak Kumar 10m Air Rifle

Anish 25m Rapid Pistol

Neeraj Kumar 25m Rapid Pistol

Manavjit Sandhu Trap

Mohd Ashab Double Trap

Smit Singh Skeet

OP Mitharwal 10m Air Pistol, 50m Pistol

Women

Apurvi Chandela 10m Air Rifle

Anjum Moudgil 50m Rifle 3P, 50m Rifle Prone

Tejaswini Sawant 50m Rifle 3P, 50m Rifle Prone

Heena Sidhu 10m Air Pistol, 25m Pistol

Seema Tomar Trap

Mehuli Ghosh 10m Air Rifle

Annu Singh 25m Pistol

Manu Bhaker 10m Air Pistol

Shreyasi Singh Trap, Double Trap

Saniya Shaikh Skeet

Maheshwari C. Skeet

Varsha Varman Double Trap

Action! India’s Schedule

Sunday, April 8

Men’s 10m Rifle: Qualification, Final

Men’s Skeet: Qualification

Women’s 10m Pistol: Qual, Final

Women’s Skeet: Qual, Final

Monday, April 9

Men’s 10m Air Pistol: Qual, Final Men’s Skeet: Qual, Final

Women’s 10m Air Rifle: Qual, Final

Tuesday, April 10

Men’s 50m Rifle Prone: Qual, Final Women’s 25m Pistol: Qual, Final

Queen’s Prize Pair: Final

Wednesday, April 11

Men’s Double Trap: Qual, Final

Men’s 50m Pistol: Qual, Final

Women’s Double Trap: Qual, Final

Thursday, April 12

Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol: Qual

Women’s 50m Rifle Prone: Final

Friday, April 13

Men’s Trap: Qualifying

Men’s 25m Rapid Pistol: Qual, Final

Women’s 50m Rifle 3P: Qual, Final

Women’s Trap: Qual, Final

Saturday, April 14

Men’s Trap: Qualifying, Final

Men’s 50m Rifle 3P: Qual, Final

Queen’s Prize individual: Final

Top team in last 3 CWG

Year Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total

2014 India 4 9 4 17

2010 India 14 11 5 30

2006 India 16 7 4 27

Main rivals

Australia and England are the other top nations in CWG shooting. In 2014, Australia had the highest number of gold (6), followed by England (5) and India (4). 

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