Nothing coming out of Khelo India, say Raninder Singh, Jaspal Rana

The Indian shooting community, including veteran administrator Raninder Singh and renowned coach Jaspal Rana, on Saturday called for the junior programme to be brought back under the national federation fold as "nothing is coming out of the Khelo India" project.

The National Rifle Association of India's (NRAI) junior programme had to be scrapped to make way for the Central government-run Khelo India Games. The current lot of shooters, including double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker, is reaping the rewards of being around for a long time.

But experts like Rana and Raninder are predicting doom for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic campaign if the federation does not get complete control of the development programme.

"If you want a team for Los Angeles you better give my junior programme back. Let NRAI run it and call it Khelo India and whatever you want, but if they (the government) are going to do it, we won't have a team for Los Angeles. Nothing is coming out of Khelo India either at the national or at the international level," Raninder told PTI.

"If you want to train an athlete in shooting, you don't give him 1000 cartridges to shoot every day. He shoots 100 a day and is monitored and mentored correctly. Everybody is a coach in India," the former NRAI president and International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) vice-president added.

Former national coach Rana, who is currently Manu's personal coach, could not agree more with Raninder. "I totally agree with him. Khelo India is a junior programme only, it is just that they took everything out of the federation's hands and made it Khelo India.

"How is it that in one year you are getting medals from Khelo India? Because you are picking the best but it took eight years to bring a junior to that (Olympic platform), junior programme has to come back," said Rana, who is open to working with the national team again.

At the Paris Olympic Games, Indian shooters not only broke a 12-year drought of medals but also claimed their best-ever haul in terms of number of podium finishes — three bronze.

Rana warned against making wholesale changes after the Paris campaign, especially when the shooters have overcome the mental hurdle of competing at the Olympics.

"We have overcome the mental block many times but we don't stick to the same thing. We change after every successful story," he said, referring to the likes of Jitu Rai and Saurabh Chaudhary, who are not part of the team any longer. "Why can't we have Abhinav Bindra run the programme? Why is he out?" Rana asked while mentioning India's only gold-winning shooter at the Olympics.

"That person could be the biggest asset for the Indian shooting fraternity but you will not hire him. You will hire someone from outside who doesn't understand our culture. Foreign coaches are fine but they won't give their 100 percent. After the Olympics their contracts will expire and they will go to another country," Rana reasoned.

Two-time gold medallist at the World Cup Final, double trap shooter Ronjan Sodhi, is optimistic about the future given the performance in Paris. "Last two outings we did not have a medal so they have done very well this time. It is encouraging for the young shooters as well and we have decent bench strength," said Sodhi.