Want more international events in India to boost shooters' confidence: NRAI President Kalikesh Singh Deo

Kalikesh Singh Deo, the President of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), was a happy and contented man after the completion of the ISSF World Cup Final that took place at New Delhi’s Dr Karni Singh Shooting Ranges.

India ended with four medals, including two silver medals. Two of the medals came in the shotgun event, which according to the President of the body, has been India’s weak link in the sport of shooting.

This success came after the Indian shooters’ haul of three medals at the Paris Olympics.

Deo spoke at length with the media about the plans for the future, hiring of coaches, and how the association is looking forward to working with the government on the junior shooters.

Excerpts from the interview:

How do you view the ISSF World Cup Final?

This has been one of the best World Finals, a fabulous performance. India won four medals. The surprise was that we got two medals from shotgun, which has been traditionally hard to get medals in. Shows only one thing… our athletes can compete with the best in the world and India is capable of winning medals in every discipline of shooting.

Is it too early to start thinking about Olympics?

You have short-term goals, long-term goals and then you have medium-term goals. As far as NRAI is concerned, we are looking at 2028 [Olympics]. We are looking at 2032 and we are looking at 2036. That is the only way to ensure that shooting remains dominant. As far as India’s performance is concerned, we intend to improve on the already reasonably good performance. When I say that, I don’t mean only medals. Let us look at the three No. 4 positions we got. Let us look at the seven finalists we had. There was 21-strong shooting contingent, the largest for India. Each one of the shooters performed well in the Olympics and in the World Cup Final which included among the best competitors.

What was the reaction of ISSF President at the conduct of the ISSF World Cup Final?

He said that he is extremely happy with the arrangements made by the organising committee to initiate such a huge competition. Let us not forget that the World Cup Final is one of the most prestigious tournaments and is completely funded by the host country. NRAI has taken care of the entire funding, including the cash prize of Rs 1.6 crore. That is not easy in the sporting world for federations to do. The ISSF President is very, very happy. He has committed to us that he will give us a Junior World Cup next year. We are also looking forward to a quota competition as soon as the quota competition starts in 2026. The Asian Shooting Confederation chief Sheikh Salman Sabah was also gracious enough to accept our invitation. We have many shared interests and goals with Asian shooting. All the three medallists in trap [at the World Cup Final] were Asian. We need to work from the continental perspective and as international shooting body, we hope that shooting retains its spot in Olympics and India retains its relative dominance in performance.

What do you have to say about the young crop of shooters?

Exciting thing about Indian shooting is that we have got a very bright, very promising, and very deep bench-strength of young shooters. That has been the core backbone of Indian shooting which has been driving forward the narrative and performance. If you look at the team that performed at the Olympics, 70 per cent of them came from the junior Olympic programme. Similarly, a young crop of juniors is coming up. They keep the seniors on their toes. We have initiated conversation with the Government of India to ensure seamless transition from Khelo India’s junior programme to senior programme. We would like, at some point in time, to have coaches common to both at least in high-performance aspect so like what happened four years ago when 15, 16 and 17 year old shooters would come and drive out the best of India and keep them on their toes [happens again]. It is competition, bench-strength. That is what we need to touch.

Has the shifting of junior programme to Khelo India impacted the NRAI programme?

We were the No. 1 country in [junior worlds recently] Peru, Lima. Let us not forget that for countries like China, a large part of their senior team comprises players under the age of 18. So when we say we are doing well, we are certainly doing well. But we also have to make sure that those juniors who are capable of competing in the senior team are capable of seamless transition. So we are talking to the government. The government has been very helpful. Khelo India has been working, getting a lot of support. I think a little bit of coordination and direction, handholding would go a long way in ensuring that juniors find a place in the senior team much more than what is happening now.

WATCH | NRAI President Kalikesh Singh Deo speaks to media 

What about the transition?

I would say that we would want permanent coaches, especially the foreign coaches. We want them to be based out of India and not come in and spend a week or 10 days and go back. We are willing to pay them. We want to make sure that those coaches coach the senior and junior shooters. So that the more promising, capable and competent shooters are able to transition into the senior team. We have a very detailed high-performance mechanism which has helped the Indian shooters perform in the Olympics. We want to extend the benefit of that to the junior team members. We are looking at starting opportunities for more shooting in India.

What about coaches and high-performance personnel?

We have advertised for coaches and high-performance personnel. We may look to increase the bench-strength of high-performance people, having more specialised staff in future. There is a requirement to change with the changing technology involving the systems of science. We will take that into account when we make that decision to change. Pierre Beauchamp was a High-Performance Director here for a couple of years and managed a lot of issues. We are in touch with him.

Will you make it mandatory for people to come and compete in Nationals?

We can’t make anything mandatory for anyone. At the start of a shooting season, if a shooter misses any nationals he will certainly be at a disadvantage in terms of rankings. That is why he will not miss the nationals.

Are you hiring coaches?

We are in conversation with the coaches. As with any public body, we need to maintain a level of transparency. We have advertised for the coaches. We have got many applications this time around, from both foreign and domestic coaches. We are evaluating them. However, we were caught up with the World Cup Final. We had requested the previous coaches to continue at the World Cup Final to maintain continuity from the Olympics. Majority of the Olympians have been given the opportunity to compete for India. We will take a decision soon. We are awaiting the review report of the coaches. Once that is there we will take a decision.

What are the major concerns in the next few years?

There is not one major issue. There are a bunch of issues that I would like to address in the next few years. No. 1 is of course, the need to ensure that Indian coaches become the best of the best in the world. We have started the coaching the coach programme. We are disseminating knowledge at the grassroots level. Even with the high-performance coaches, we are hoping to facilitate their learning process by giving them chance and ability which was not there before. We want to ensure more and more of international events in India so that their confidence increases. We are planning to have 1, 2 or 3 levels of teams which can be given simultaneous exposure to various competitions. 

Tags : Kalikesh Singh Deo, NRAI, Shooting, Manu Bhaker, ISSF, World Cup Final, Nationalm Rifle, Association, India