A private initiative, and finally a foreign coach

The Italian, before coming to India, had coached Saudi Arabia and Oman and was recommended to Jindal by fellow shooters. Jindal and Dracchio met in Singapore late last year and finalised the deal.

The coach is already training a bunch of skeet shooters, both at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range and at Jindal’s ranges in Noida, Kurukshetra and Raigarh.

Jindal feels that more such coaches would be of great help to hone the skills of skeet shooters in the country. “In national meets and in training we shoot 120 plus out of 125. But there is a huge gap when we try to repeat it in meets abroad. It really puzzles me and I don’t have an answer why we are not able to do better.

“I think the solution lies is more and more encouragement and better facilities like the one I proposed to the Sports Ministry. Maybe, it will lure more budding shooters to the range,” he says.

As for the NRAI criticism, Jindal feels it was uncharitable. “No shooter in the world wants to shoot badly. When we can shoot as well as we do in India, there is no reason why can’t we do that elsewhere? Probably, we need to widen our base. Unfortunately, sports takes the last spot in our government’s priority list. I feel ashamed about it.”

As for his own shooting, he did admit that despite being the national record holder at 122/125 the pressure gets to him. “My experience notwithstanding, I have felt the pressure. So I can’t expect the youngsters to go and win medals straightaway.

“We need to invest more and await the result. It will definitely come because Indians can be as good as anybody in the world in shooting,” he assures.