Pistol ace and 2014 Asian Games gold medallist Jitu Rai and 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist in 10m air rifle Gagan Narang are the two notable names missing from India's shooting squad for the Asian Games announced today.
The 26-member squad is a mix of experience and young talent, coming after the strong show in the Commonwealth Games in April. Pistol shooter Manu Bhaker, Anish Bhanwala and air rifle shooter Elavanil Valarivan made the grade, while another upcoming ace rifle shooter Mehuli Ghosh missed the bus.
Surprisingly, ace pistol shooter and Commonwealth Games 2018 gold medallist Heena Sidhu, too, was left out of the mixed team. Unhappy, she cried foul over the selection of Manu Bhaker ahead of her in the air pistol mixed team event, citing flouting of the set selection criteria. However, Sidhu will be competing in the air pistol individual event along with Bhaker.
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Sidhu also complained that Bhaker was allowed to “sit on past good performances” which is against the spirit of the selection policy decided and declared. In a letter to the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Raninder Singh, Sidhu alleged that “Sport Pistol scores of Manu Bhaker which are being considered for selection are of January to March which provides ample time to sit on performances”. Sidhu alleged that Bhaker chose to compete in the KSS national championships and selection trials in June as a provisional shooter, thereby clearly showing her intent to save good past performances.
It appears that Bhaker's coaching team has taken advantage of a loophole in the selection criteria followed by the NRAI related to the best four scores within a period of 150 days.
As it turned out, the selection committee of the NRAI had indeed taken into account scores of 40 shots competition in Bhaker's case but as per NRAI officials, that was “extrapolated to 60 shots for all shooters and, therefore, Bhaker pipped Heena in the mixed team selection”.
Sidhu contended that nowhere did the policy state that the committee would consider the 40 shots score once the shooter had four scores of 60 shots.
Bhaker, 16, who shot into limelight with her tremendous performances in the CWG and debut in the senior World Cup earlier this year, is a protégé of junior national pistol coach and legend Jaspal Rana. Bhaker has been in good form—a day earlier she won the gold in the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany, and also broke the junior world record. This is the third world record Bhaker has broken this year.
The NRAI and its selection committee appear to have gone with the inputs of Rana in the matter.