CHENNAI: India’s shooting squad is leaving no stone unturned ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. Over the weekend, a group of shooters, all Olympic quota-holders, headed down to the Inspire Institute of Sport in Vijayanagar. And this time, for a change, they did not carry their guns. Top shooters, including Manu Bhaker, Apurvi Chandela, Anjum Moudgil and Abhishek Verma, spent four days at IIS, unwinding and learning about some of the off-range aspects of their sport.
Eleven of the 15 shooters, who won Olympic quotas, went on the trip. Accompanying them were coaches Suma Shirur and Ved Prakash Pilaniya. “We had sessions on things like sleep management, how to beat jet-lag while travelling,” said an official at the facility. “There were also sessions on how to handle social media, media training as well as sponsorship and other commercial activities.”
Asian Games bronze medallist Abhishek Verma revealed they have returned from the trip refreshed. “It was a training camp related to nutrition, physical training, media training and all that. There were foreign experts, who told us about things like basic diet plan and sleep management. The whole team is feeling fresh. We are happy we had our camp there.” Shirur agrees. “It was a good time for the shooters to go back to learning and get inputs from foreign experts,” she said. “This is a crucial time. It was nice to meet a lot of experts.
Overall, it was a good learning experience. It was useful especially for the upcoming stars. There was a talk on media management which was important for the youngsters, who’ve just come into the fold. They’ve been completely sheltered so far and slowly, they’re going to be exposed more and more to the media.”The highlight of the camp, for the shooter, would probably have been the visit to nearby Hampi. “That was the best part of the trip,” Abhishek laughed. “This was my first time in Hampi. The experience was wonderful for the whole team.”