If anyone is to take the blame, it's me, says NRAI chief after flop show at Rio

08/14/2016

National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) President Raninder Singh on Saturday took the responsibility for the shooters’ poor performance in the Rio Olympics. The 49-year-old also added that it was a “tactical blunder” to allow the athletes to train with their personal coaches for the Olympics.

After securing a silver and a bronze in the 2012 Olympics, the 12-member Indian shooting contingent landed in Rio hoping to better their mark. But, after eight days of action, India are in danger of ending the tournament without a medal from shooting with only the 50m rifle three positions event remaining. However, even before the start of the blame game, NRAI President Raninder Singh has taken all the blame for the poor show upon himself.

We did our best. My athletes are not at fault. If anyone is to take the blame it's me."

"I want to take up the responsibility. It's been a spate of bad luck. Though we have not been able to win any medal, our performance and scores if you compare are better than that of London. We have gone up in overall performance though we have gone down in terms of medals.

"We did our best. My athletes are not at fault. If anyone is to take the blame it's me. 85 percent of Olympic medals every year (sic) come from shooting. So the hype was fine. But if luck was a little bit with us, we should have gone home with 3-4 medals. It's just slipped. The standard is very high, unlike in other multi-discipline events like Commonwealth Games,” said the NRAI chief, reported PTI.

At Rio, Jitu Rai and Abhinav Bindra made it to the final of the 10m pistol and 10m air rifle respectively with the latter finishing in fourth position after a shoot-off. Jitu, Gagan Narang, and Mairaj Ahmad Khan also came close to qualifying for the final in the 50m pistol, 50m rifle prone, and skeet events respectively with the latter missing out after a shoot-off. Although many came close, Raninder Singh believes that it was a tactical blunder to allow athletes to train with their personal coaches.

We have made a tactical blunder in allowing personal coaches on their own."

"We have made a tactical blunder in allowing personal coaches on their own. We will introspect this in future. Overall three athletes, their competition has been below par. Others have shot brilliantly," Raninder said without naming anyone.

The NRAI chief also admitted that they will look into the performance of athletes who have participated in multiple events.

"If there has been multiple starts by an athlete in multiple Olympics, and he has failed multiple times, the federation will have a look into it. There will be some negative points also. We are open to debate,” said the 49-year-old.

If anyone is to take the blame, it's me, says NRAI chief after flop show at Rio

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