Will it be ‘fourth time’ lucky for Manavjit

The Rio Olympics will be Manavjit Singh Sandhu’s fourth consecutive appearance at the Summer Games and the trap shooter will be gunning for glory in the Brazilian metropolis.

Toiling in Italy under the watchful eyes of India coach Marcello Dradi and Serafino Carlini, the former world champion is confident that Indian shooters have the ability to do well in the quadrennial extravaganza.

“I feel that the Indian shooting contingent is a highly qualified and hope that we can better our performance of London 2012,” Sandhu told this paper from Italy on Wednesday.

“The entire team are medal prospects, but if I had to pick one who is favourite for a medal, it would be Jitu Rai,” he added.

India will field a 12-member shooting team in Rio, one more than at the London Games.

Spearheading the Indian challenge will be Beijing Olympics gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, London Games bronze medallist Gagan Narang, multiple World Cup and world championship medallist Jitu Rai and women’s pistol ace Heena Sidhu.

An Olympic medal is still missing from Sandhu’s glittering trophy cabinet, but the veteran shoo-ter is “not under pressure to perform but eager to put his best foot forward”.

“Taking part in the Olympics is any sportsperson’s dream and naturally there will be bit of excitement and nervousness. My aim is to win a medal at Rio... I have had brilliant experiences in the preceding three Games. Not only at the event itself but also the way I prepared. Unfort-unately I could not return with any medal... but I feel I have a good mixture of experience and form this time,” the Arjuna awardee said.

The former world no. 1 was included in the Olympic squad due to his consistent scores in the selection trials, at the expense of two-time Olympian Sanjeev Rajput in the trap event.

“I am happy with my preparations. I have still another two months to go and will utilise this time to further fine tune my technique. I am training in Italy mostly, taking part in many competitions and preparing hard,” he said.

“I will be training as well as relaxing. At the same time, you need to ensure that you are focused and not get injured.”

Dardi also expressed satisfaction with Manavjit’s current form and was confident that the 39-year-old from Punjab has a good chance to finish on the podium in Rio thanks to his combination of experience and form. “He is in form and had good results at the selection trials. I hope he will come up with good results.”

Asked about his retirement plans, Sandhu said, “Not yet. I hope and wish to shoot for my country for a few years yet.”

Sandhu will travel to San Marino for his next tournament — the World Cup — in the first week of June. He will take part in a few events as well before travelling to Rio.