Tokyo Olympics 2020: Indian Shooters have a fun day out with a trip to Hampi

What's the story?

The Indian shooting team, which was undergoing a High Performance training camp at the Inspire Institute of Sports in Vijayanagar, had a fun day out with a visit to the ruins of Hampi.

In case you didn't know...

A record 15 shooters have already booked their spot for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and will be keen on clinching a medal for the country. This is three more than the 12 shooters who had qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The shooters who have qualified for the Olympics will be representing India in multiple events such as the 10 m Air Rifle, 10 m Air Pistol, 50 m Rifle 3 Position, 25 m Pistol and Skeet. We could also expect a few more shooters to qualify for the quadrennial event based on their World Rankings as we head closer to the Games.

The Indian shooters had an outstanding 2019 as they topped the medal tally across the 4 World Cups bagging a total of 22 medals including 16 gold.

The heart of the matter

The Indian shooting team underwent a high-performance training camp at the Inspire Institute of Sports (IIS) in Vijayanagar. The institute, which has been set up by Jindal Steel Works (JSW), has been stitched together with state-of-the-art facilities and sports science and has some of the finest coaching minds from across the world to help Indian athletes chase their Indian Olympic dream.

It was a four-day camp organised for the shooters who had won an Olympic quota. 11 of the 15 shooters who have qualified for the Olympics attended the camp. The other 4 shooters, Saurabh Chaudhary, Sanjeev Rajput, Tejaswini Sawant and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa, could not attend the camp due to various reasons. The camp concentrated on physical conditioning and the shooters also benefited greatly from listening to the various experts that were arranged during the stint, including an interactive media session.

As part of the camp, the shooters also had a fun day off at Hampi which is a famous tourist destination. The shooters enjoyed the trip a lot and Asiad Gold Medalist Rahi Sarnobat said:

“I had always wanted to come to Hampi. This was a good chance, and we had a great time. All my family members had visited it earlier,”

Apurvi Chandela, who had qualified for the Tokyo Olympics through the 2018 World Championships in Changwon and had an outstanding 2019 with two World Cup Golds, went on to add:

"We went to Hampi which has been on the list for a long time. It was good to visit today and it's a beautiful place. I like knowing about history."

It was a memorable experience for the young shooters like Manu Bhaker, Yashaswini Deswal, Chinki Yadav, Divyansh Singh Panwar, Abhishek Verma and Deepak Kumar.

Manisha Malhotra, former Asian Games silver medalist, who has been working with the athletes for JSW and had arranged the camp and the tour said:

“Empowering the athletes with knowledge and the right technological support is our focus”

All in all, it was a great fun outing for the shooters and it would have helped in refreshing their minds from the gruelling world of competitive sports.

What's next?

Having utilised their off period with a physical conditional camp and a refreshing day off at Hampi, the shooters would be going back to the shooting ranges to hone their skills for the upcoming competitions.