Monday, February 6, 2012

Rs. 14.40 Crore Spent So Far on Olympic Preparation
11 Quotas Won by Indian Shooters

An amount of Rs. 14.40 crore has been spent so far under ‘Operation Excellence for London Olympics 2012’ (OPEX 2012) scheme on the training/ foreign exposure to shooters. Out of this, a sum of Rs. 2.90 crore was spent on National Coaching Camps organized for training of 91 shooters (59 men and 32 women) who are being guided by 19 coaches (including 3 foreign coaches) and 5 supporting personnel (including 1 foreign gunsmith), while the remaining amount of Rs. 11.50 crore was utilized for foreign exposure of players. Till now eight coaching camps of a total duration of 124 days have been organized. This was stated by Shri Jagjit Singh, Secretary General, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) in review meeting of the preparation for Olympics, 2012, called by Shri Ajay Maken, Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports.

The Sports Minister also asked Sh. Singh to submit all the requests for gadgets and equipments as well as for foreign training of players, if any, within 2-3 days so that the Steering Committee clears all such proposals received from various Sports Federations in its meeting scheduled for 6th February , 2012.

In London Olympics highest number of shooters, that is, eleven, will be participating since the start of “Quota Place” system in 1988. They are: Shri Gagan Narang, Shri Hari Om Singh, Shri Sanjeev Rajput, Shri Ranjan Sodhi, Ms. Annuraj Singh, Ms. Rahi Sarnobat, Shri Vijay Kumar, Shri Abhinav Bindra, Ms. Shagun Chowdhary, Shri Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Shri Imran Hasan Khan. Under the “Double Starter” rule, Shri Narang and Ms. Annuraj Singh will be participating in more than one event.

In the run-up to the Olympics, Indian team participated in 13 International Competitions up until January, 2012. For the first time shooters were sent to Eley Ltd., UK, an ammunition manufacturing factory, for testing of ammunition to help them select ammunitions according to their rifle barrel size and achieve the best results in competitions. Apart from participation in the various international competitions, shooters will be attending various coaching camps abroad under the conditions which are similar to London. Besides, the services of four foreign experts, three coaches and one support staff, have been employed. They are: Mr. Stass Lapidus (Rifle coach), Mr. Anatolli Piddubnyi (Pistol coach), Mr. Marcello Dradi (Shotgun coach) and Mr. Anatoliy Fedorchenko (Support staff- Gunsmith). The financial assistance to Abhinav Bindra, Ronjan Sodhi and Manavjit Singh Sandhu has been approved under National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) scheme.

In the Beijing Olympics, 2008, nine shooters from India participated, with the highlight being the gold medal won by Shri Abhinav Bindra in men’s air rifle event.

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