GUNNING FOR A MEDAL

Members of the Indian shooting contingent for the Beijing Olympics may just make it to the winner's podium.

Maybe India is a chronically optimistic country. Even though sportsmen from this country haven't really covered themselves with glory at different sporting events like the Olympics, it is likely that the expectation of winning medals is likely to reach fever pitch when the Beijing Olympics start 565 days from now. And shooting is one sport where experts and fans believe that our chances of winning a medal or two are quite high.

There are basically two reasons for this: India is still high on the silver medal won by Major Rajyavardhan Rathore in the previous Games and, second, we have the right blend of youth and experience in the Indian Olympics shooting team. So what is the level of preparation that the shooters are trying to achieve?

According to Rathore, "The Games are still some time away, but most of the shooters started preparing for the big event a while ago." Take Abhinav Bindra, for instance.

This young lad who did the country proud by becoming the first world champion in the trap event, has been preparing for the past three years for Beijing.

He is following an extensive and well-defined training schedule with the assistance of his personal coach, Stanislav Lapidus. Add to this the fact that even though he is all of 23 years old, he already has the experience of two Olympics under his belt. He was the youngest Indian participant at Sydney in 2000 and also represented the country in Athens four years later.

Manavjit Singh Sandhu, last year's big star, is also aiming for glory at Beijing. Sandhu, who practises yoga for better concentration, also maintains a fitness regimen.

Says Rathore, "The ideal preparation is taking part in events and to undergo extensive training in several conditions."

Training involves activities like theoretical knowledge, shooting tactics under various conditions, different shooting positions, general physical training and yoga. Visiting the host city early to get acclimatised is also an important part of the preparations for the shooters.

Opines Bindra, "You don't know what the conditions will be like, so it is a good idea to visit the place to get a fair idea and get used to the city." Bindra feels that one can train very hard but what happens on the day of the competition is unpredictable.

He says, "The wind might just not favour you or something else can go wrong, so adaptibility is the key." On a normal day of practice, Bindra shoots around 150 rounds.

Choosing the right ammunition for training is another key area which the shooters are looking at. Fitness is key area. Recently, Bindra had withdrawn from an international event while Gagan Narang has had some fitness concerns.

On paper, the team looks formidable and this has given rise to the expectations. So far, Indian shooters Gagan Narang, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Abhinav Bindra, Manavjit Sandhu, Anjali Vedpathak and Avneet Sidhu in the women's category have bagged six quota places for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The remaining bulk of the spots in the Indian team will, however, be up for grabs only later this year. The four venues for rifle and pistol shooters to earn Olympic spots are Fort Benning in the US, Sydney, Bangkok and Munich. Among the many who are hopeful of earnning a berth for the Games is Samaresh Jung.

Though Jung was named as the best athelete at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, he has had an indifferent 2006. Pistol shooter Jaspal Rana is back in the reckoning with three gold medals at the Doha Asiad as well as a silver medal.

Rifle shooter Navnath Fartade also bought glory to the country by winning the world title in the juniors' rifle event at the same event. "In shooting, continuous practice is important" concludes Bindra.

The old adage of practice making a man perfect, if followed religiously, might just help this country of a billion to finally bag a few medals at the Bejing Olympics. After all, a country can only be taken seriously as a superpower when it also starts topping the medals tally and not coming home empty-handed. And justify its optimism.