Shooters expected to
lead medal hunt

Despite a general slump in form, India's 20-member shooting contingent is expected to do the bulk of the medal-winning at the 17th Commonwealth Games, beginning in Manchester, on Thursday.

Though most of the Indian shooters were far from impressive in the just-concluded World championships in Lahti (Finland), India have traditionally done well in the shooting competition at the Games and it remains to be seen if they can keep their reputation intact this time around.

The Indian shooters returned with a decent haul of four gold, two silver and one bronze medal from the last Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 and would be keen to improve the tally in this edition.

The performance in Kuala Lumpur was creditable considering the fact that they could manage three gold, three silver and two bronze medals in the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria. The shooters could bag just one silver and one bronze in 1982 and did marginally better in the next edition with one gold, one silver and three bronze medals.

Ace pistol man Jaspal Rana will spearhead the Indian challenge while the highly-talented young Abhinav Bindra, who has already made his presence felt in recent international events, would be another medal prospect in the competitions, to be held at the National Shooting Centre in Bisley from July 27.

Rana's form in the recent World championship left much to be desired but the pistol king has the class and calibre to bounce back and keep himself in the reckoning.

The irrepressible Rana had clinched two gold medals in his favourite centre fire pistol event in the last Games and bagged a silver in the air pistol event.

With a number of strong teams including Australia and Canada in the fray, Rana will no doubt find the going tough and can hardly afford to be complacent.

Seasoned shooters like Samaresh Jung, Anwer Sultan, Manavjit Singh, Bhanwar Lal Dhaka, Vivek Singh, A P Subbaiah and Mukesh Kumar have the desired experience to do well in international meets, having been in the business for a long time. But they have to be a lot more consistent to make it to the medal podium.

In the women's section, Anjali (Vedpathak) Bhagwat and Kuheli Gangulee are the two main medal contenders though Sushma Rana has the potential of putting up a good display on her day.

The women shooters had secured a gold medal at the last Games, with Roopa Unnikrishnan claiming the honour in the sports rifle event. But Unnikrishanan is not in the team now and it remains to be seen whether the women shooters can emulate her.

India will take part in all the 28 shooting events for which 34 gold medals will be at stake.

Although the Indian Olympic Association had forwarded the names of 30 shooters for the meet, the government pruned the list to 20.

The team will be accompanied by three foreign coaches Marcello Dardi (Italy), Juan Giha Yarur (Peru) and Tibor Gonezol (Australia).