Indian Shooting thread

[sameerph]

^^^ Harmanpreet Singh was part of junior team which won junior world cup in 2016.

[Atithee]

I said at the beginning. I’m looking for individuals not teams. As I suspected, the best examples would be from badminton although we haven’t really had even a badminton great for a while but they have fulfilled the promise. Anyway, it’s up to your judgment. I don’t use junior results as a great predictor for India in individual events. However, it’s better than not having even that.

[arjun2761]

Neeraj Chopra was also a junior world champion.

Being a top junior is the best predictor of senior success for Indians as well as for others. It is better than any other predictor that I can think of.

Of course, one has to understand middle school stats to understand that it isn’t a 1:1 predictor. For example, if there are 12 age cohorts that are at the competitive top level than being a top 5 junior only projects to a top 60 at the senior level. Furthermore, perhaps only 50% of the juniors keep progressing as they become seniors, so only half of the top 10 in tennis may make the top 120.

I don’t think Indian juniors do much worse than that. Of course, if there is age cheating than that distorts the junior achievements. Back to shooting, I don’t think age cheating should make that much of a difference since it isn’t as much dependent on size or strength.

[prasen9]

I was talking about Indians. Age fudging creates huge doubts about juniors’ successes in countries where it’s relatively easy to misrepresent age. And, Paes wasn’t really a singles success I had in mind. But, will take it. Other examples? I was thinking badminton may have been our best feeder but I don’t know.

You had asked for medal winners. Paes won a medal.

If we are talking Olympic medal winners, we have won medals largely in badminton, shooting, wrestling, and boxing. (In tennis, the only other medal we won, the rate is 100%, i.e., one medalist, and that person was a junior champion, Wimbledon). Wrestling and boxing do not have very many organized junior tournaments - to the extent I know. Our shooters did not participate in very many junior tournaments in the past. Now, we have a culture of shooting as a sport in many cities in the country and people are going to junior tournaments. So, we expect to see more from this generation of juniors - see Manu. The previous generations we have no data because they simply did not participate. Shooters used to come from the army, which people joined as a young adult and then excelled. By that time, they were not juniors anymore. Now, it comes from shooting clubs. Badminton, we have had two medalists: Sindhu and Saina. Sindhu won an Asian Junior Championship and I think a Commonwealth junior. By the time she was perhaps 17, she was already playing in the seniors and in the top-10 or whatever. So, she does not perhaps have a junior world championship. Saina, people have talked above.

In any case, as the case for Manu shows, this generation of shooters who are getting exposure early in their careers in shooting will do good - not all of them but some of them. It is also good that they are getting to participate in world championships as juniors. We will know early on who has the mental capacity at least at this stage and who does not, even though the competition is weaker, because of age-group restrictions, as Arjun explained.

[prasen9]

Also, I do not use it as an individual predictor. If we have say 10 junior world champions, the odds are perhaps reasonable that we will get 1-2 medal winners. If we have 20 junior champs, I think we can expect to see 3-4 senior medals. I have not done the numbers to give you exact ratios. In this sense, having a bunch of people succeed in the junior level gives us a pool of players who we have the hope will develop to give medals. Sort of like the predictions we do with the medals in the Olympics - a larger pool of possible medalists usually results in more medals at the end although some years more bad things happen and in some years less. Population statistics. In this case, there is more uncertainty because the juniors perhaps become competitive 5-25 years later (in shooting). We know all that. However, I would rather have a group of top junior champions consistently - that also shows that the grass-roots participation, coaching, infrastructure in that sport is working. And, when you have the system, with a large population, eventually you get medalists.

[sameerph]

Today world cup finals began in New Delhi. This is played among top 8-10 shooters who did well in the world cup and some wild cards from India. In case of India, I only see a few of the shooters who were there in our olympic team.

Today, mens and womens 10M air rifle and air pistol events were done.

Only 1 medal for us today - Silver for Sonam Maskar, a new name who had a world class score in both qualifying and final. She lost the gold to Paris Olympics silver medalist from China.

Others disappointed though- like Arjun Babuta who narrowly missed a medal in Paris, again gave it away from a medal winning position and finished 6th, similarly Rytham Sangwan fell away after a good start in the final and finished outside medals.

Rest of the events will all get done tomorrow it seems.

[sameerph]

We got 3 more medals in this world cup final= silver for Vivan kapoor won silver in mens trap, Anant Jeet Singh Naruka won bronze in mens skeet and Akhil Sheron won bronze in mens 50M rifle 3 positions.

So, we ended up with 4 medals here which is decent in a prime event when some of our top shooters were absent.

[HockeywithBilli]

Manu Bhaker's father regrets putting daughter in shooting after Khel Ratna axe

Manu Bhaker's father, Ram Kishan, has expressed disappointment over her daughter's reportedly being ignored for the Khel Ratna list. He lashed out at the nomination process, stated that Manu won two medals in a single edition of the Olympics, and asked what else to expect from one for the government to recognise her efforts.
"I regret putting her in the sport of shooting. I should have instead made her a cricketer. Then, all the awards and accolades would have come her way. She won two Olympic medals in a single edition, no one has ever done that. What else do you expect my child to do for the country? The government must recognise her efforts," Manu Bhaker's father told Times of India.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/sports/o ... 51842.html

[HockeywithBilli]

Her old tweet :

[HockeywithBilli]

[HockeywithBilli]

[Atithee]

Honestly, I don’t know why they’re creating so much drama and making hyperbolic statements. Manu has had her share of kudos for her unprecedented achievements and she and her family shouldn’t beg for the award. It’s shameful to exclude her—undoubtedly.

[Atithee]

Now, this is the way to handle it. Pure class. Well done, Manu.

[HockeywithBilli]

Seems like a Good cop and bad cop policy!!!!

[sameerph]

Saurabh Chaudhary is back in the Indian shooting team after 2 years for the first 2 world cups of the year in South America in April-

Manu Bhaker headlines India squad for first two Shooting World Cups of 2025

The squad was selected after trails in which top 3 in each category were selected. Manu Bhaker duly made it to top 3 in both 10M and 25M events but other 2 Indian medalists at Paris Olympics- Swapnil Kusale and Sarabjot Singh could not make it to the team.

This shows the depth that Indian shooting has at domestic level. Hopefully, this will spur our shooting team to go from 3 medals to 6-7 medals by next olympics. This is very much possible as Korea got 6 medals in Paris ( China got 10 but they are much ahead). This year is start of next Olympics cycle, so lets see how we start.