India’s Paris Olympics 2024 medallists are expected to return to competitive shooting at the Senior National Shooting Championships, which will commence on Wednesday, December 11, 2024.
Olympic Medalists Return To Action At National Shooting Championships
The Senior National Shooting Championships will feature big names such as Swapnil Kusale, who will be competing in the rifle events and Sarabjot Singh, who will compete in the pistol events. However, the star of India’s Paris 2024 campaign, Manu Bhaker, will only compete in the Minimum Qualification Score (MQS) section, meaning that her scores will not be taken into account in the competition.
Will Manu Bhaker Participate At National Shooting Championships?
Manu Bhaker was a double medallist at the Paris Olympics 2024. She has sought to be considered for the MQS section while she continues to recover and polish her skills. After a long break following her success at Paris 2024, she traveled with her personal coach, Jaspal Rana to Lugano, Switzerland, to focus on improving the technical aspects of her weapon at the Morini factory. Currently, Bhaker has been training at Delhi’s Karni Singh Shooting Range however she prefers to take more time before fully re-engaging in high-level competition. Manu, the other two Olympic medallists—Kusale and Singh—are returning from a break in training by skipping the October World Cup.
Selection Trials And National Games
After selection trials, the National Games are scheduled in Uttarakhand starting from January 28,2025 to February 14, 2025. Even the NRAI has not stated its official selection policy in place yet, though debate is going on about alterations. Among such, one important proposal on table includes the right to practice the national campers with personal coaches outside the national camps, which is similar to that adopted by the NRAI a few years back at Paris Olympics where shooters ready to head for the Games can meet their personal coaches who remain in touch with national coaches.
NRAI Policy Discussions And Support Elite Shooters
With domestic competition still growing, another proposal in discussion is to help shooters who have fallen out of the national team’s ecosystem. It is challenging for many shooters to re-enter the national camp once they are out for some time. This new policy may help in technical support and coaching for such talents.
Participation At Senior National Shooting Championships
A record 13,522 shooters have enrolled for the national championships, which will be participated in rifle events, with the maximum number of entries (7,013). Rifle competitions will be held from December 15-31 at the MP State Shooting Academy in Bhopal. Pistol competitions will be conducted at the Karni Singh Shooting Range in Delhi. Also, 837 shotgun shooters will be taking part in skeet, trap, and double trap competitions with defending champions Anant Jeet Singh Naruka and Ganemat Sekhon eyeing title retention in men’s and women’s skeet.
Which athlete are you looking forward to perform at the National Shooting Championships?
The Sportz Planet Desk,
Atharva Shetye
