Asian gold winner Anjai Bhagwat and world record holder Suma Shirur are out of the Indian squad’s elite women’s air rifle category for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. While Anjali made the cut in the three-position, Suma is fully out. Two youngsters — Avneet Sindhu and Tejaswini Sawant — uprooted seasoned Anjali and Suma to surge ahead in the race for berths for the Games (March next).Anjali’s nemesis has been her lack of match temperament and inconsistent performance.National coach Sunny Thomas doesn’t agree about Anjali’s inconsistentcy, pinning hopes that she would be among the medallists in Melbourne, but the Mumbai shooter’s record does tell a different story. The variation in her scores is quite big. On the international scene this is suicide.Anjali’s two best scores that were taken into account shows that there is at least a four-point difference in the air rifle event. The variation is huge in the three position, an event in which she will be representing the country. In the air rifle event, her two best scores were 398 (497.8, including final 10 shots) and 394 (495.3). At the international level medals are decided on decimals.Her three-position scores were: 569 (666.0) and 584 (680.5). And in both the finals her average was less than 100. At the international level this figure should definitely be above 100.The finals are ten shots under extreme pressure. For a medal one has to overcome this psychological stress. That’s where Anjali has been faltering.After her Athens Olympics disastrous outing (immediately after her event she refused to talk to the media), Anjali, took more than 12-months off from competitive shooting. On her comeback, she has either not being able to focus, or hasn’t worked on how to handle pressure.Suma, of course, has a god enough excuse. Being pregnant, one could expect her to take things a bit lightly.Anjali’s loss has been gain for two youngsters. Avneet Sindhu and Tejaswini Sawant has consistent performances in the nationals and two recent selection trials at Hyderabad. Avneet and Tejaswini finished ahead by at least two points.With an average of 498.70, Avneet topped the ranking list, followed by Tejaswani (498.20). While Anjali’s average was 496.55. Olympian Suma and Deepali Deshpande had averaged 497.20 and 496.35, respectively.There was disappointment for seasoned Jaspal Rana too. He failed to find a place in the men’s air rifle and standard pistol event. He managed to win a berth in the centre fire pistol — event that he has been dominating for nearly a decade.Gagan Narang and Abhinav Bindra will participate in the rifle 3 position, besides air rifle.
