As the National Rifle Association of India’s (NRAI) selection committee announced the squad for the London Games at Rudrapur, one name was conspicuous by its absence. News of Athens silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore not making it to the team was met with disappointment. The selectors preferred rifle shooter Joydeep Karmakar and pistol shooter Heena Sidhu instead.
Rathore, who was in good form and had won gold at the Asian Shotgun Championship, was tipped to get the berth on Imran Hassan Khan’s quota. But the selectors preferred pistol shooter Sidhu over the Army man.
“The selection was done on the basis of the points every shooter had. Heena had an upper hand over others,” said the advisor of NRAI, Baljit Singh Sethi.
“For Imran’s quota, we had discussed many names, which included Rathore, Anjali Bhagwat, Anisa Sayyed and others. It was unanimously decided that Heena scored above all when it came to consistency,” Sethi added.
Khan, who had recently won a quota in the 3-position men’s event at Asian Championship in Doha, had a slim chance of making the cut as Gagan Narang and Sanjeev Rajput had already qualified for the event.
His quota has now been given to Heena. “Though I was expecting my name to be there since the discussion of transferring Imran’s quota began, it came to me as a pleasant surprise,” Heena told DNA.
Karmakar got Army man Hariom Singh’s quota as the latter displayed poor form in the past few months. “In the men’s prone event, Joydeep made it to the team as Hariom hasn’t been doing well for many days now,” Sethi added.
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