‘Roadmap lacking’

Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar slams shooting team’s preparation; says there should have been six-month plan focusing on training, rest, foreign exposure

Olympic medallist shooter Vijay Kumar feels the Indian shooting team’s preparations have been far from ideal and that a clear roadmap should have been in place for Paris-bound shooters six months before the mega event.

“Observing from the outside, I feel it is the planning of players in the last six months where we are lacking. The federation, I feel, should have had a crystal clear roadmap on what all competitions the shooters should take part in and the kind of training they should get and under whom.

Vijay Kumar

“So the focus should have been on that. The last six months the focus should be on how to make the players more focused, how much to train them, how much foreign exposure needs to be given, all that needs to be worked to the ‘T’,” he added.

“This year also, I’ve heard that the team were announced three [two] months before the Olympics. The trials were very late and the team announcement too was late. This exercise should have been completed in January-February, to be very frank,” he added.

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“The federation’s policy to have Olympic Selection Trials was fair but the execution was a bit late. The process should have been completed 2-3 months before it actually happened. The last 5-6 months [before Olympics] are crucial. I must say, if the competition at the Olympics is in July-end, then January or maximum February the trials should have ended. Here trials were going on till April-end I suppose,” he remarked.

Vijay felt that the team should have been given a month’s rest before they embarked on rigorous specialised training. 

Unfortunately, due to the Olympic Selection Trials taking place late and the late announcement of the team, Indian shooters didn’t have that luxury.

“The [federation] should have given proper rest to the shooter of about a month and then rigorous training should have started after that, plus foreign exposure, plus technical training. That would have been ideal as per my understanding,” he added.

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