India's junior shooting coach Jaspal Rana has claimed that a "tweak" in selection policy kept 16-year-old Asian Games gold-medallist Saurabh Chaudhary out of the national team for one year.
Chaudhary, the son of a farmer from Kalina village in Meerut, went on to win the gold medal beating a field of multiple world and Olympic champions in Palembang, Indonesia, in the process becoming India's youngest shooter to win gold at Asian Games.
"He was out of the national team for one year because the policy was twisted by certain influential people within and outside the NRAI (National Rifle Association of India)," the Jaspal told PTI in an interview.
The four-time Asian Games gold-medallist added, "Saurabh was the number one shooter in senior ahead of Jitu (Rai), who was supported by one NGO.
"Saurabh was disqualified from one of the trials due to 'so-called grip problems'. I eventually intervened, told a few coaches and the disqualification was revoked."
"Look at (Virat) Kohli and (Sachin) Tendukar, they have sweated it out everyday to get where they are."
"Money is being spent on sending teams abroad, foreign coaches, but are you monitoring the money given to athletes for schemes like TOPS? I think it has to be monitored properly."
"My appeal is to the parents: please do not interfere in the training programme, they need to fight the battle, it's my responsibility but you (parents) will be the biggest loser."
"Their performance has raised expectations, the government is allocating funds and private sponsors are also involved. We will have to repeat what we have been doing. Mind you countries such as China, Korea and Japan are not going to remain quiet. They are not really not happy with that, so only it gets tougher for us."
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