By IANS,
New Delhi : National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Raninder Singh Tuesday justified the decision to exclude Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore from the squad for the London Games saying the 2004 Olympic silver medallist’s performance couldn’t win the faith of the national selectors.
“We have to decide on the basis of who can win medals in which event. This is a measurable sport, there is very little left to selectors. The selection is not an in-house procedure done by the NRAI. We requested two government observers,” Singh told reporters here.
“Rathore’s final score of 128 didn’t inspire confidence in the selectors. The bias must be dispelled. We have been as transparent as humanely possible. We will do not deny merit. Merit has to be the sole criteria in a measurable sport,” he said.
The NRAI president, however, said that this is not the end of road for Rathore.
“In Rathore’s case, we do no think, in any way, this is the end of his career. It is time for him to take stock and go further,” he said.
Rathore was dropped from the squad last month while rifle man Joydeep Karmakar and young pistol shooter Heena Sidhu made the cut at the expense of Hariom Singh and Imran Hasan Khan, who were the only two shooters to be dropped despite booking Olympic quotas. Rathore, a double trap exponent, however, was kept as a back-up.
Defending the selection of Heena, Singh said: “Consistency of performance at A-level tournaments was taken into account. Heena is ranked 17th in international ranking out of 193 while Rathore is 47th and three Indians are ahead of him. Heena has been undertaking some mental and technical training at her own level. Yesterday she shot 385 which, in our opinion, is an Olympic final score.”
The NRAI president also thanked the sports ministry for granting funds close to Rs.13 crores for the training the shooters for the London Games.
“A total of close to Rs 12.5 to 13 crore has been sanctioned by the ministry over a period of time,” said Singh
“There are two types of funding provided by the ministry. Three shooters are receiving direct funding under the National Sports Development Funds since 2009. We do allow them (shooters) the liberty if they want to hone their skills individually. Shagun Chowdhury (trap shooter) has asked for Rs.50 lakh for her individual training and that has been approved by the ministry,” he said.
“A group of five shooters namely Gagan Narang, Sanjeev Rajput, Rahi Sarnobat, Annuraj Singh and Vijay Kumar will be training together. They are awaiting final sanctioning from the ministry, expected to be approved by end of this week. Abhinav Bindra, Ronjan Sodhi and Jaydeep Karmakar training individually. The individuals are taking care of their own support staff as per their needs,” he said.