The National Rifle Association of India’s (NRAI) policy of dropping Olympic quota winners from subsequent competitions is detrimental for the shooters since the resultant lack of competition takes away from them the ability to withstand pressure in major events, reckons former national selector TS Dhillon.
The NRAI, in order to maximise Olympic quota places for the country, either drops shooters who have secured the slot in earlier tournaments or makes them compete in the Minimum Qualification Scores (MQS) category, thus leaving them out of medal contention.
Air rifle shooter Rudrankksh Patil, after bagging the 10m air rifle Olympic quota with a gold-winning performance at the 2022 World Championships in Cairo, could not defend his title in Baku, Azerbaijan this year as he was dropped from the squad.
Rudrankksh, Rajeshwari Kumari (trap) and Sift Kaur Samra (50m rifle 3-positions) will compete at the Asian Championships — a 2024 Paris Olympic qualification event — from October 22-November 2 but only in the RPO (Raking Points Only) category, as they would be ‘giving’ other Indian shooters another opportunity to earn more quota places.
“It is very demoralising for the boy (Rudrankksh). Actually, for any shooter of high class for that matter who has achieved (Olympic quota). It is not fair even in the fairness of fairness. You should give opportunity to (other) people (shooters) but here in shooting sport, you need to earn the opportunity,” said Dhillon, who remained NRAI’s national selector for 17 years, the longest in that crucial position.
India had bagged a record 15 quota places ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games but came back empty-handed.
Young pistol shooter Saurabh Chaudhary too was made to cool his heels after he earned the Olympic quota and was dropped or shot in RPO category subsequently as second pistol shooter in his category had not bagged a quota.
Despite high hopes, Saurabh returned without a medal from the 2020 Olympics.
Dhillon, credited with the construction of the Kadarpur Range for big bore in Gurgaon for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, added that “momentum” gets affected when a shooter is dropped after securing an Olympic quota.
