Left high and dry, shooters hire a coach

31 January 2010. With NRAI unable to recruit a coach to replace Hungarian Csaba Gyorik who left after the Beijing Olympics, six top pistol shooters decided to hire renowned coach Anatoli Poddubni from their own pockets.

Poddubni who coached the Soviets to world domination which also includes the likes of Moscow Olympic gold medallist Aleksandr Melentiev has been roped in for a period of six months.

The Indian pistol shooters Samresh Jung, Heena Sidhu, Ronak Pandit, Amanpreet Singh, Ruchit Kapadia and Upasana Parasrampuria have availed of the services of the top coach, with each spending around Rs 50,000 a month.

Samaresh Jung- 5 Gold medals at 2006 Commonwealth Games

"How long should we wait? The authorities can take their own time but the competition dates won't change. Now, we're spending from our pockets to pay renowned coach Anatoli Poddubni of Ukraine for his expertise", said Samaresh Jung

Last October, Jung had told indianshooting.com that his training is not on the right path. "Since there is no good coach in the country, training is not going on expected lines. Without an expert, it is difficult to ascertain proper training programme and attain peak at the right time".

"The Army has two foreign coaches to train its shooters but there is no coach for the national squad which forced us to act," Jung added, explaining the plight of civilian pistol shooters.

The appointment of a Ukrainian coach by the shooters themselves has not gone down well with sports minister MS Gill who said they should have showed more patience though the marksmen argued that they could not wait longer for things to happen. Gill, however, said he has taken note of their demand and had asked his ministry officials to look into the matter.

Interestingly, NRAI is now trying hard to recruit Melentiev to fill the vacant pistol coach's slot. Knowing the pace at which files move between federations and government departments, the other shooters should be prepared to wait for weeks before the new coach arrives in India. indianshooting.com