CHENNAI: Indian shooting seems to have hit the right note wherein successes have become more regular than failures. The Paris Olympics last year fetched the country an unprecedented three medals and just over a year later in the ongoing World Championships in Cairo, shooters are thriving again.
The results are unprecedented and what seems to be heartening is that India captured an impressive haul of seven medals in 10 Olympic disciplines in Cairo. The latest was a bronze in women's sport pistol, which was won by Esha Singh. It was the 20-year-old's second medal in the championship following her silver along with Samrat Rana in 10m air pistol mixed team category. Samrat, a former junior world medallist, had also captured an individual gold in 10m air pistol category in his maiden senior appearance.
Ronak Pandit, India's high performance manager and also Esha's personal coach, felt that the unprecedented results are a reflection on the systems in place. "All the training plans and programmes are athlete specific and each shooter has a different training plan," he told this daily on Friday while on his way to Mumbai from Asansol. "Depending on what challenges they face, everything is designed around that. More importantly, it is evident that Indian shooting is getting better because training keeps happening on a regular basis. So it's not that after every Olympic Games you start from scratch or you reset. It's not like that."
Shooters, who went to the Olympics, took a proper break and resumed training again. And those who missed the Paris flight went ahead with their regular training program.
"Post-Paris as High Performance Manager, I'm looking after the overall direction of training and coordination between the different coaching verticals like sports science, technical training and mental training," said Ronak. "Our calendars are tuned in such a way that shooters peak at the right time. And they get a feel of international competitions even during training and selection trials."
Ronak, while speaking as Esha's coach, spoke about the shooter's ability to handle pressure. What has also aided the Telangana youngster, according to the coach, is her work ethic and her willingness to listen and learn.
"The biggest advantage with Esha is that she would do as she is told," said Ronak. "She follows plans and discusses with the coach. Whatever is decided and planned by the coach, the athlete should execute it. That's what she is good at."
Ronak gave an example, "Everyone always considered Esha to be an air pistol shooter (10m). But in 2023, around the Bhopal World Cup, is when I noticed signs of her having great potential in the 25m event also. A lot of people were very skeptical. But I had my conviction. I convinced Esha and she had faith in me."
Paris Games was a setback for Esha, Ronak felt that like every sportsperson one has to deal with it. "In the Olympics, she shot a 581, which is not a bad score. But everybody wants a medal at the Olympics. If there is no medal, then people just think of the performance as a failure. Even though she was very dejected, she had a good performance."
Ronak felt the break she took after the Olympics was a boon for his ward. "After the Olympics, Esha took a long break. She is not the person who can train six hours a day, six days a week regularly at the range. She has a very systematic way of training — less sessions but high-intensity ones. We had a very long break. She went to meet her family abroad (in the US). She is also a very good student and is doing management studies. She focussed on her studies."
That break helped Esha gradually come to terms with her Paris setback. She began training in January in Pune at Ronak's academy before picking up the intensity level during the national trials and later on, at different World Cups. Initially, according to Ronak, they did not participate at the World Cup for wins but Esha had been ending on the winning side.
Unlike the build-up to the 2024 Paris Games, where she had participated in just one category, Esha was balancing both 25m and 10m this year. "We are able to balance both the events simultaneously. Earlier, because she was starting off in 25 meters, a lot of focus was required there. But now we are able to manage both events well on a daily basis," said the coach. That paid off as she had also captured the 10m air pistol mixed team event silver just a few days ago.
In the final on Friday, Esha was under immense pressure but the manner in which she coped with it did not surprise Ronak. "We have worked on all kinds of situations and simulated match pressure. We worked on that too. I used to say 'the more pressure there is, the more you should feel lucky'. Instead of lamenting, one should welcome pressure."
Reflection of bench strength
As High Performance Manager, Ronak was pleased with the overall result. He felt the way shooters performed showed India's progress in the sport. It highlighted India's bench strength. "I have to be very happy with their performances, mainly because the number of finals conversion is very high this time," said Ronak. "Normally, if we have four or five finalists, we will get one medal. But this time, more than 50% of shooters won medals after qualifying for finals. And most are new medallists. For example, in the 10m pistol women's event, Esha and Manu qualified for the final. They may not have won the medal but they performed well. Again two qualified for the 10m men's final and both won medals. Then in the 10m pistol mixed team, we qualified as toppers and won silver. In sport pistol, two qualified and one won a medal. Look at the strength of your team."