CHENNAI: The selection of foreign shooting coaches and national coaches is in the process right now. The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), after inviting applications for the same last month, are looking to pick the best candidates ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Now, they’re also looking to rope in support staff to assist the coaches at both junior and senior levels at least until the next Olympic Games.
The federation is looking to get the services of three physiotherapists, three psychologists and three physical trainers. In the last Olympic cycle, the NRAI had contract with Manav Rachna for sports science support. “We were utilising services from Manav Rachna. They have full-time sports science centre. Apart from that, Olympic Gold Quest was also sending their physios. Now, we would like to have some regular professionals on our panel,” a NRAI official told this daily.
The support staff members will work in consultation with the national coaches and will be stationed at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range, according to the NRAI.In regards to appointment of coaches (national and foreign), the federation had recently sent a invites last month (deadline for the same was Jan 30). According to the federation, the response was good. It is also learnt that all the coaches who were previously there until the Tokyo Olympics have sent their applications. That’s of course does not guarantee their return. The federation officials will start pruning the application list in due course and is expected to start the interview process soon.It should be noted that all the coaches (Indian and foreign) contract were terminated after a disastrous performance during the Tokyo Olympics.