Indian Olympic medallist RS Rathore not part of London 2012 Olympic shooting team
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, an Indian athlete who is also an Olympic medallist was not included in the Indian delegation that will be sent to take part in the upcoming London 2012 Olympic Games.
Rathore did his country proud by securing the silver medal in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games while taking part in the shooting event. However, according to the recent announcement made by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), Rathore is not a part
of the shooting squad consisting of 11 members that will be making a show of their skills at the Olympic Games in London which are to start from July 27 and end on August 12.
Baljeet Sethi, who is a senior advisor with the NRAI, commented on the matter in the following manner, “All names were discussed but we had to go by the selection criteria. Rathore finished second behind Ronjan Singh Sodhi. But we thought there were better
chances of winning a medal in the women’s air pistol and that was the reason why we swapped a rifle quota for Heena Sidhu. She is a talented girl and we picked her based on the current form.”
The prominent shooters that make up the 11-member delegation include Abhinav Bindra as well as Gagan Narang. Bindra has had the honour of winning the gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The event in which Bindra won the gold was the 10-metre air
rifle competition and he will be participating in the same event in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
On the other hand, Narang was able to make his mark by giving an impressive performance at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Out of all 11 members, Narang will be the sole Indian shooter that will be taking part in the 10m air rifle, 50m 3 position and 50m prone.
Apart from Narang and Bindra, the other members of the shooting squad include Sanjeev Rajput for 50m 3 position, Joydeep Karmakar for 50m prone and Vijay Kumar for rapid fire pistol.
The selection of the 11 shooters took place in Rudarpur as the president of the NRAI, Raninder Singh, was present there for a political rally.
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