CHATEAUROUX: Almost 300 kilometres away from Paris, reeling under coordinated strikes possibly by leftist militants and environmental activists on its rail network, India will be aiming to end an eight-year-old itch at the Olympic shooting range at this quaint city in central France from Saturday. The shooting competition ends on August 5.
Saboteurs struck France’s TGV high-speed train network in a series of pre-dawn attacks across the country, causing travel chaos and exposing security gaps ahead of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony on Friday, reported news agency Reuters. But the Games will continue as scheduled.
Shooting remains India’s single biggest hope to win medals in double digits for the first time in an Olympics and if form, mind and luck fall in a line perfectly, the Summer Games would have begun well this time.
Despite their high reputation, shooters have drawn a blank in two successive Games – Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. India won a record seven medals in Japan but the hurt of drawing a blank especially in shooting remained a massive scar. Paris 2024 could just be third time lucky. Having trained at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre en route to their Paris 2024 journey, at least 15 members in India’s 21-member shooting squad will find themselves at ‘home’ when competition starts at one of the biggest ranges in Europe that was inaugurated by the French Shooting Federation in 2018.
Not one but two sets of shooters will be vying for medals on Day 1 of the shooting competition. Medals will be decided in the 10-metre air rifle mixed team event and India will pin their hopes on the combination of Sandeep Singh and Elavenil Valarivan and duo of Arjun Babuta and Ramita to qualify for the medal round.