Former Olympian Suma Shirur, who accompanied the junior shooters for the Sydney event as High Performance Coach (air rifle) just before the CWG
As India's shooting stars begin their quest for gold in the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games on Sunday, the recent spate of yellow metals from their marksmen at the World Cup in Mexico and the Junior World Cup in Australia will give them a boost.
The Indian shooters took a rare No. 1 spot in the medals table in Guadalajara, Mexico, with four gold and a total of nine medals, above USA and China. In Sydney, India finished second with total of 22 medals including nine gold behind China, three medals separating the two on the tally.
Former Olympian Suma Shirur, who accompanied the junior shooters for the Sydney event as High Performance Coach (air rifle) just before the CWG, said India stood favourites in the team events and that the individual medals depended on that particular athlete's performances.
Speaking to DNA after her first major assignment with the junior Indian team, Shirur said: "We have the best team in the CWG. With the new system of having a 'zero' for the final – the finals start from zero and all points accumulated until the final don't count – it all boils down to the day of the event. We need to give our best," Shirur said.
Shirur's confidence in the team doing well stems from the fact that the Indian team consists of experienced champion shooters like Gagan Narang (50m rifle prone), Jitu Rai (10m air pistol), Heena Sidhu (10m air pistol) and talented youngsters like Manu Bhaker (10m air pistol), Mehuli Ghosh (10m air rifle) and Anish Bhanwala (25m rapid fire pistol).
The 16-year-old Bhaker, who won gold medals in 10m air pistol in the Mexico senior World Cup and Sydney junior World Cup back-to-back, will hog the limelight as she enters her maiden multi-discipline event.
Shirur was all praise for Bhaker after seeing her from close quarters in Sydney. "From my observation, Manu is fearless, she is natural, has a free mind. What I like is her body language, the temperament, focus. All of these really stand out especially for her age. She also comes across as a very confident young girl. She has peaked very early by sheer talent,' the 43-year-old air rifle specialist said.
Bhaker is not all. Shirur said that "this younger lot of shooters is the best so far". "We have had some in the past. There have been many cases where we have had juniors in the senior but not in this number. Things are getting better now for junior shooters largely because of team work and the vision of NRAI in engaging top former shooters into the coaching front having a strong junior coaching programme."
While Bhaker and Anish (25m rapid fire pistol) won gold medals in the junior World Cup, Mehuli was absent from the competition. "Mehuli was largely focussing on the CWG as the coach Oleg Mikhailov said the whole team needed to practice together for the Games and it sounded fine for us."
Shirur threw a word of caution when it came to grooming the young promising shooters. "That is something that needs to be worked on. The juniors have a growing mind, growing body, it is a phase where they are growing up. As long as she (Bhaker) has the form, it will be nice if she can carry on with it. It is about grooming her in the right direction. I trust the junior programme to take care of it," Shirur, 2004 Athens Olympics finalist, said.
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