India's rifle and pistol shooting squad for the upcoming Paris Olympics has been officially announced three weeks after the tough, four-stage Olympic Selection Trials ended.
The big takeaway from the announcement is that there are no changes made to the trial winners list, despite letters to the federation by a couple of shooters. The National Rifle Association of India stuck to its policy of giving the trial winners Olympic berths.
This four-pronged trial was one of the measures adopted by the NRAI after India's dismal showing in the past two Olympics. Another was limiting the number of international competitions and backing current form over past achievements. The squad reflects these measures.
Note: This is the only the squad for rifle and pistol events. The final shotgun squad will be announced soon, with scores from the final shotgun World Cup awaited. There will also be an additional shotgun shooter as Manu Bhaker has freed up an extra spot with selection in two events.
Here are the big talking points from India's Paris Olympic shooting squad:
First, who are in the final squad?
India earned a record 21 quotas this Olympic cycle, with 16 out of 16 in the eight individual rifle and pistol events and five more across the four individual shotgun events.
The final squad has several new faces as well as shooters who have found their way back into after the Tokyo Olympics setback (15 shooters, 1 final, 0 medals)
The squad for Paris:
Sandeep Singh, Arjun Babuta (10m Air Rifle M)
Elavenil Valarivan, Ramita (10m Air Rifle W)
Sift Kaur Samra, Anjum Moudgil (50m Rifle 3 Positions W)
Aishwary Tomar, Swapnil Kusale (50m Rifle 3 Positions M)
Sarabjot Singh, Arjun Cheema (10m Air Pistol M)
Manu Bhaker, Rhythm Sangwan (10m Air Pistol W)
Anish Bhanwala, Vijayveer Sidhu (25m RFP M)
Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh (25m Pistol W)
Any major surprises?
There is no surprise in the squad right now, with the trial winners making the final cut.
The biggest surprise from the trials, though, was the relatively inexperienced Sandeep Singh finishing on top in men's 10m air rifle - and hence was chosen ahead of former world champion Rudrankksh Patil and Tokyo Olympian Divyansh Singh Panwar. You can read more about the accidental shooter from the Indian Army, here.
Who are the Tokyo returnees?
There are four shooters who have a shot at Olympic redemption three years after the collective heartbreak:
Manu Bhaker endured a torrid time in Tokyo after a medal-filled lead-up to the Games pre-pandemic. She faced a weapon malfunction and lost time in the 10m air pistol qualification and had a poor outing in the mixed team qualification with Saurabh Chaudhary. For Paris, though, she's made it to the Olympic squad in 3 disciplines once again - the 10m air pistol, 25m pistol, and 10m pistol mixed team.
Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, who had finished 21st in Tokyo, and then fallen behind nationally in 50m rifle 3P, will also make a return to the Olympics. He sealed his spot ahead of quota-winner Akhil Sheoran in what was a very competitive category. Tomar had four medals at the Asian Games (10m and 50m 3P, team and individual) and that experience should help him do better in Paris.
Anjum Moudgil, one of the veterans in the squad at 30, also makes a comeback after a tough period. In Tokyo, she had moved from 10m air rifle (where she won the quota) to 50m rifle 3P and finished 15th. Ahead of Paris, she more focussed on the longer discipline and having built herself up again, sees the competition very differently now.
Elavenil Valarivan had made the Tokyo team in a very tight Indian women's 10m air rifle field despite not having won the quota but couldn't make a mark. Now 24, she has the chance to put that debut behind her.
Neither Elavenil nor Anjum had not made India's squad for the Asian Games last October.
Who are the new faces to watch out for?
There are no new faces except for Sandeep Singh.
In fact, many of the youngsters in India's squad for the Olympics have already seen big success at the Asian Games: Sift (gold), Esha Singh (two silvers) and Ramita Jindal (bronze).
Ramita, in fact, sprung a surprise in the trials, shooting a sensational 636.4 (0.1 more than the existing world record) to make the cut in the final trial.
Other Olympic debutants such as Anish Bhanwala, Sarabjot Singh, Arjun Babuta, Arjun Singh Cheema, Vijayveer Sidhu have been around the Indian team for a while now, across the junior and senior circuits.
How have the selected shooters performed recently?
Post the trials, most of them took part in the ISSF World Cup in Munich to mixed results, and even with mixed approaches.
Several chose not to shoot in the main section in the Ranking Points Only (RPO).
For instance, Babuta shot a superb 635.1 in the RPO, behind only the prodigious Sheng Lihao.
Bhaker had a DNS (did not start) to her name, suggesting she was there at the event but did not compete in the end.
In Munich, there were two medals from five finals. The standout performer was Sarabjot Singh, who won a pole-to-flag gold in the men's 10m air pistol leading from qualification to final. Sift won a bronze in women's 50m rifle 3P while Ramita and Esha finished sixth and Aishwary was eighth.
Wait, what about the selection controversy?
This time, it was in the form of two letters to the federation asking to be selected over the trial winners due to their prior achievements.
First, former world champion Rudrankksh Patil asked to be selected over Sandeep Singh citing inexperience. Patil had finished third in the trials, and his score at the Munich WC was not enough to make his case stronger: he finished 17th in qualification while Sandeep was 9th.
Asian Games champion Palak Gulia also wrote saying she should be considered for her high score in the national selection trials and because she did not have enough time to prepare ahead of the first Olympic trial in April.
But NRAI have stuck to the trial results.
What can we expect from them in Paris?
After the last two Olympics, it would be a fool's errand to predict Indian shooting results. But given India's talent pool, level of competition, and expertise, it's also hard to count the shooters out.