Indian team aims to have long training
The Hindu
Dr. Karni Singh Range likely to host the shooters
After its overwhelming performance in the World Cup here in March, Indian shooting has lost a precious month planning the preparation for the Tokyo Olympics. The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) maintained that the discussions were on between the stake holders and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) to finalise the course of action. The readiness of the Indian shooters was evident in the manner the team won 15 of the 30 gold medals on offer in the World Cup. In fact, India won 30 of the 82 medals. The second best performer, the US team, managed four gold, three silver and a bronze. No other team reached double figures for medals, which should give a fair indication about the Indian shooters’ capacity on the global stage, though power houses like China and Korea were not present.He has worn India’s blues, albeit in an Under-19 World Cup, with K.L. Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat as his teammates. He has proudly adorned the Lion’s Crest — the famed Mumbai cricket logo — in all three formats. He has played with Yuvraj Singh, against Virat Kohli and Rahul Dravid and has the likes of Rahul and Joe Root in his illustrious list of dismissals. He is also a software developer for an IT giant, based in California. Virtually every middle-class Indian over the last three decades at some stage dreams of being either a cricketer or an IT professional. Saurabh Netravalkar has been combining two dreams, even after relocating to USA to pursue academics at the prestigious Cornell University in 2015.
Unlike most of the Olympic-bound athletes, who opt to train abroad before the big event, boxer Amit Panghal prefers training in home conditions prior to Paris 2024. A former World championships silver medallist and a World No. 1, Panghal won the 51kg quota place in the only chance he got. He wants to follow his own plans to script success in Paris.
The other men’s semifinal Friday is Norway’s Casper Ruud, twice the runner-up in Paris — to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and to Novak Djokovic in 2023 — against Germany’s Alexander Zverev, a finalist at the 2020 U.S. Open, an Olympic gold medalist and into the final four at Roland Garros for the fourth consecutive year.