New Delhi: Athens Olympics silver medalist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore failed to find a place while rising talents Heena Sidhu and Joydeep Karmakar got the nod in the 11-member Indian shooting team, announced for the 2012 London Olympics on Sunday.
While Rathore's name did not go beyond the discussion stage in the selection meeting, which took place at Rudrapur in Uttarakhand, Heena and Karmakar were rewarded for their consistency.
Missing out were Hariom Singh and Army's Imran Hasan Khan, who were the only two shooters to be dropped despite booking Olympic quotas, as the calculations of various scores the shooters had managed were also taken into account while picking the team.
Heena figured in the list after the selection committee exchanged the quota won in 50m Rifle 3 Position (Imran) with the Air Pistol women's event as it felt that India have a better chance of winning a medal in Air Pistol.
As per International Shooting Sport Federation rules, a country is allowed to exchange one quota won by its shooters with another, subject to its availability and confirmation by the ISSF.
Imran, despite having a quota, was left out as India have already reserved a maximum two slots in the 50m Rifle 3 Position category - that of Gagan Narang and Sanjeev Rajput, who are ranked higher than Imran and have also qualified for the Games.
The NRAI will be sending its request to the ISSF for exchange of quota of 50-metre Rifle 3 Position with Air Pistol Women shortly.
For 50-metre Rifle Prone, Karmakar was favoured over Hariom Singh as the former is leading in this event.
For the record, it is the first time that a woman trap shooter will participate in the Olympic Games since the start of quota system in 1988, with Shagun Chowdhary representing India in this event.
Abhinav Bindra, the 2008 Beijing Games 10-metre Air Rifle gold medalist and India's first individual Olympic champion, and 2010 Commonwealth Games' star shooter Gagan Narang were the automatic choices.
Narang will be the only shooter to participate in all three events - 10m Air Rifle, 50m 3 Position and 50m Prone - while Bindra will only be seen in his pet event, 10m Air Rifle.
"The decision was unanimous. We looked at who is a better prospect and who can win medals," said NRAI advisor Baljit Singh Sethi.
Sethi also said the selectors followed the norm that "quota belongs to country and not to the person who won it."
"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," he said.
Heena, world No.17, won a gold medal in pairs and an individual silver medal in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, and was also a part of the silver-winning team in the Guangzhou Asian Games.
Sethi said Hariom and Imran were dropped because they couldn't perform well in the trials.
"Hariom could not be selected as he finished third in the trials and we had to replace him with Joydeep, who finished on top. Similarly, Imran, who won the quota in 50m Rifle 3 Position also finished third in the trials and it was unanimously decided to swap his quota for Air Pistol," he said.
The selected shooters will be participating in nine events - rifle/pistol and shotgun.
Selected shooters will also be participating in other events where they have obtained MQS (Minimum Qualification Score). Narang will be participating in three events although he has won quota in Air Rifle event. Annuraj Singh will be participating in Sports Pistol women.
Eight coaches will accompany the team to London.
It was also decided to keep one shooter in the reserve category in each event for unforeseen circumstances.
The selection was held in Rudrapur since the federation president, Raninder Singh, was occupied with some other important work there.
List of selected shooters:
Air Rifle Men and 50m Rifle 3 Position Men: Gagan Narang, Abhinav Bindra, Sanjeev Rajput
50m Rifle Prone and Air Pistol Women: Joydeep Karmakar, Annuraj Singh, Gagan Narang, Heena Sidhu
Sports Pistol: Rahi Sarnobat, Annuraj Singh
Trap Men: Manavjit Singh Sandhu
Double Trap: Ronjan Sodhi
Trap Women: Shagun Chowdhary
Rapid Fire Pistol: Vijay Kumar
Reserves: 3 Position Men - Imran Hasan Khan, Prone Men - Sushil Ghaley, Air Rifle Men - Sateyendra Singh, Rapid Fire Pistol - Pemba Tamang, Sports Pistol - Anisa Sayyed, Air Pistol Women - Shweta Chaudhary, Trap Men - Anirudh Singh, Double Trap - RVS Rathore, Trap Women - Seema Tomar
Coaches: Stanislav Lapidus - Rifle Coach, Anatoly Piddubnyl - Pistol Coach, Smirnov Pavel - Pistol Coach, Marcello Dradi - Shotgun Coach, Heniz Reinkemier - Rifle Coach, Sunny Thomas - National Coach, Amarjang Singh - Shotgun Coach, Moraad Ali Khan - Shotgun Coach
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