Today's young shooters dream of winning Olympics: Suma Shirur

Indian shooters continue to dominate another world event, this time at the ISSF World Cup (pistol and rifle) in Rio de Janeiro, finishing with five gold, two each of silver and bronze. Suma Shirur, high performance coach of the Indian junior rifle shooting team and who has some top national shooters coming to her Lakshya Shooting Club in Karnala Sports Academy Shooting Ranges in New Panvel, tells G Krishnan that the current crop of young marksmen want to win nothing short of gold. Excerpts:

Of late, we see junior shooters making a mark in senior category, winning with ease. What is the reason for this?

I have always said that whatever change we see today has come about from one generation of shooters, i.e. my generation. When we started with, shooting was nothing. Nobody knew about shooting. But, over the years, for me it is 25 years into the game, I have seen shooting from zero to a level where now at every Olympics we are winning medals. That has changed the mindset of the next generation. When I started, the goal was only to go to the Olympics. I dreamt of being in the Olympics. But today's youngsters dream of winning at the Olympics. That is a major shift in the way they see sport. They enjoy the sport, they are very competitive, they are fearless and they love competition. They thrive on competition. It is this joy that you see when they are on the range. For them, they are not satisfied with just being good. They are not satisfied with a silver medal. After Abhinav Bindra's gold at the 2008 Olympics, I don't think anyone is even satisfied with even a silver medal. Last year, in the Youth Olympics, Shahu Tushar Mane won silver and he was crying. He felt he was so close to winning the gold. I was very happy to see the change, kids are crying for silver because they want gold.

How much are the youngsters benefitting from having ace shooters like Jaspal Rana, Deepali Deshpande and yourself as coaches?

In our times, certain officials we had were for administrative side. I went to Germany, picked up the tricks of the trade, learnt the scientific way. I have invested a lot of time in gathering knowledge that I have today. What the children now have is the knowledge I have acquired over the years. That is one of the biggest advantages. Current crop of coaches are ex-shooters. They have vast knowledge. Shooters from Day 1 have everything, right from equipment, rifles, etc. We are there to guide them with technical know-how. I spent 10 years in the game playing. The first five years went in just gathering knowledge. With us at the junior level – myself, Deepali, Jaspal – have been to Olympics or Asian Games, today's kids get the right thought process, technical inputs. That has definitely made a major shift. From my personal example, when I took over as high-performance coach, with my technical inputs and experience, I would say I did not expect the results would kick in so early. Our shooters are so talented. India is a powerhouse when it comes to talent. We need to dig in. A little here and a little there, the entire crop not only won but with world records. We have been able to contribute to 46 medals to the country. That is a huge contribution with so many world records. You give the talent the right direction. In almost every competition, we finished No. 1. That goes to show our talent and a very good programme is finally in place. It is finally giving us the results. The changes are not overnight. Now everything is in place, the selection process, the ranking policy, camps. Now the system works.

(10m air pistol mixed team gold medallists India’s Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary with Yashaswini Singh Deswal and Abhishek Verma after their final in Rio on Monday-Twitter)

How difficult is it for the junior shooters to excel in senior tournaments?

I am very happy the juniors are not only winning in junior level but also in the senior level. The senior teams also comprise junior shooters. Elavenil Valarivan, only 20, just last week won her maiden gold in the senior World Cup in Rio. In men's air rifle team, two out of the three shooters are juniors. Fifty per cent in the senior team is of juniors. Juniors are shooting senior levels and not just by fluke but by technique. They really work hard. The present crop of juniors are willing to go all out, ready to put so much on the line. The result is the willingness to sacrifice. This is really a big difference from the juniors of the years gone by. Today, they go all out and that is what is required.

Two such youngsters who have taken to senior level easily are Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary. What's special about them?

Manu has already won the Olympic quota. Every shooter takes a little time to bounce back. Last year we also had a lot of competitions. The year 2018 was one of the major years with Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, World Championships and the Youth Olympics. That's when most shooters get the chance to be in the limelight. Manu has done her job of winning Olympic quota and you will hear more about her in next year being the year of Olympics.

Manu's coach Jaspal Rana was recently in the news for missing out on Dronacharya award. What is your take on Rana not winning the award yet again?

When we look at Jaspal's contribution towards juniors, especially in pistol event, it is huge. There are so many juniors in senior pistol team. Manu, Saurabh, Anish Bhanwala and so many more, they are all products of the system that is created and nurtured by Jaspal. It is a way he has envisaged the whole pistol programme. Getting the children to be disciplined, getting them into a certain system. I have seen Jaspal with Manu from morning yoga at 5.30 till evening when the whole day of training is over. It is not just technique but also moulding them in every possible way. They are growing up, they are adolescents. They don't know where they stand. You are with him or her through all those days. You are not just shaping them technically in sport but also mentally. When it comes to Jaspal, it is not just Manu or Saurabh. It is the entire lot that has come up. He deserved to get the Drona award.

Having said that, I am sure the selection process must have been fair. There is a point system in place. If someone like Jaspal is not able to get it, it is time to have a greater insight into the whole process and maybe we need to revamp and recheck the whole process so that the evaluation is much more fair and takes into consideration many more aspects than what is in place right now. Anything that's in place needs to have healthy discussion and debate, and needs to be amended with changing times.

How much of shooting being omitted from 2022 Commonwealth Games impact India's overall medal count?

Shooting not included in 2022 CWG is definitely a setback. For many shooters, CWG is always the first step towards being in the limelight. CWG is a very important competition. Once CWG is off the list, the first major competition are the Asian Games It is a more difficult platform. You have very strong Asian countries in shooting, winning there is a very big challenge. CWG is also a preparation to major competitions. It is always a good first step towards handling limelight situation which you will face in Olympics. CWG, Asiad, Olympics are similar in terms of having the country's attention on you. It is a good platform to learn and deal with. Prize money for shooters is definitely important. Unlike other sports, in shooting you spend more than win in prize money. By not having shooting in CWG only cuts that incentive. It is definitely not good for the sport. It is very sad that it is out. For me, my first big memory and winning at the big stage is the CWG. It is disheartening it is off. For India, when we are doing well in shooting, a move like this is not in our favour.