New shooting stars rise

The ISSF World Cup shooting championships, which ended in Gudalajara, Mexico last weekend, could be the beginning of a golden era for India. A stellar show by young shooters like Manu Bhaker, Akhil Sheoran, Shahzar Rizvi, Om Prakash Mitharval, Anjum Moudgil and Mehuli Ghosh saw India top the medal tally for the first time in an international shooting competition. Four gold, one silver and four bronze medals was India’s medal haul — a promising sign ahead of next month’s Commonwealth Games at Australia’s Gold Coast. Our only individual Olympic gold medallist, Abhinav Bindra, is convinced that the shooters’ Mexican high noon is a harbinger of a golden future. What was stunning was that very young shooters excelled. Haryana’s Manu Bhaker, 16, stole the show at her international debut with gold in 10m air pistol. Manu, who was taken off physical combat sport by her mother, seems to have taken to shooting like a duck to water.

What this shows is that if India’s young are encouraged to take to sport early, and are given access to modern equipment and training, they can rise to great heights. It is the emerging generations that have the best chance as they have the resources to get good conditions to train in. Of course, this may not apply to physically draining or contact sport. India’s sportsmen have been known to shine best while harnessing their brain more than brawn, which may be why we seem to excel at chess, cricket, billiards and snooker, shooting and such disciplines that call for great powers of concentration, but don’t make impossible demands on the physique.