Time ripe for NRAI to appoint High Performance Manager to ensure Olympic plans stay on track

It is a day and a half since the National Rifle Association of India made two big decisions in picking the Indian team for the Olympic Games. It chose to give World Championship silver medalist Anjum Moudgil’s quota earned in 10m Air Rifle to Elavenil Valarivan and to drop 25 Pistol shooter Chinki Yadav and reallocate her quota to Anjum Moudgil in the 50m Rifle 3 Position.

Sometimes, it helps to wait for a day to collect one’s thoughts, debate them with like-minded and learn from the wiser before making a response. The power of the pause can be abundantly useful in articulation. The power of the deliberate pause is of greater utility when it comes to joining a discussion.

NRAI President Raninder Singh said in a media release that he believed the selection was done purely on merit and in keeping with the provisions of NRAI’s Olympic selection ranking policy. “This merit-based approach has enabled us field a third specialist shooter in the women’s 10m Air Rifle events as well as go with the two best shooters in women’s 25m Pistol event,” he said.

Later, responding to a Social Media post if it was right (from an emotional intelligence point-of-view) for a National Sports Federation President to reveal that a coach had signed a dissenting note, he wrote: “Dissent is healthy in a family and, in NRAI, it is respected. Voluntary disclosure to media is necessary for transparency and an integral part of wish to improve consistently.”

The talk of voluntary disclosure and transparency would have rung true had it been revealed in the media release. On the contrary, his statement in the release read: “The Selection Committee’s main focus was to select the strongest squad for the Games and to ensure that the most consistent performers in each event, during the course of this entire Olympic cycle, do not miss out.”

There should be no doubt that that the selection committee has done the best job possible under the circumstances. Yet, by its own admission, much of its time was taken up in making two big decisions. Those are best left to the collective wisdom (and objective data) of the selection committee. Hopefully, they would have taken big-match temperament also into account.

However, there has been no explanation on the change in the Air Rifle Mixed team combinations. The argument proffered by some that Elavenil Valarivan and Divyansh Singh Panwar won the World Cup gold in Delhi last month flies in the face of the fact that not all World Cup gold medal winners were given such preference.

If indeed, performance in the entire Olympic cycle was a consideration, the selectors would have easily seen that the combination of Anjum Moudgil and Divyansh Singh Panwar gained a podium finish in each of the three ISSF World Cup events they competed in back in 2019. And it would have been only right of that combination was retained.

Some will argue that there is not even a hint of co-ordination or team-work in the mixed team events in shooting sport. Truth to tell, team-work does not have to be based on verbal communication during a competition. And sometimes, the mere presence of a partner with whom a shooter has delivered consistent results in the past can be comforting, if not motivating.

For all that, since the team has been selected, it will help everyone if the focus quickly shifts to the final stage of preparation for the Olympic Games. It must be believed that the strongest squad has been chosen and that it will concentrate its energies on delivering the best possible results for itself and the country.

India has invested enormously in the Sports Shooting disciplines in the past four years – and we are not just talking financial here – and it is imperative that the roadmap for the next three months is without any glitches. A fairly young team has been entrusted with the task of minting medals in Tokyo and despite talk of it being a fearless generation, their nerves will need settling down. 

With a dozen shooters making their Olympic debut, it is imperative that everyone in the ecosystem helps them be ready for the challenges that await them in Tokyo. If the shooters are in a good physical, mental and emotional space, they will give themselves the best chance of optimising their undeniable potential.

It will not be too late if the National Rifle Association of India engages a High Performance Director to ensure that the athletes, coaches and other support staff not have any distractions and veer from the pathway to growth and evolution. The key appointment does not necessarily have to be a former shooter, but one who is adept in High Performance management in any walk of life.

The proactive NRAI President has made the right moves in engaging with shooters and coaches — and in smoothening ruffled feathers — but as the Olympic Games draw closer, the team can do with a High Performance Manager who, on a day to day basis, can help the NRAI actualise its dream of bouncing back from what was a nightmare showing in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

The team