5 min readJul 27, 2023 07:45 AM IST
First published on: Jul 26, 2023 at 08:01 PM IST
When Anjum Moudgil was in France last week with the rest of the Indian shooting contingent, she couldn’t help clicking a few photographs in Châteauroux. These weren’t Instagrammable clicks of the quaint French city, but visual pointers of the things she needed to keep in mind ahead of the Paris Olympics in a year’s time: from the shade of the target lights used in the 10m range to the way the 50m range looked.
The idea, Anjum said, was to help herself and other Indian shooters get an understanding of what little tweaks can be done by them in their home ranges to replicate the Châteauroux range that will host the shooting event at Paris 2024. India’s first individual Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra had famously recreated the Rio Olympics 10m finals hall at his home range in Chandigarh. He finished fourth at what was his fifth Olympics.
For most Indian shooters, their recent weeklong training camp in France was an opportunity to get a feel of the range in Châteauroux for the first time as none of them had competed here before. Châteauroux, which is about 250 kilometers (or a three-hour drive) from Paris, will provide the shooters plenty of seclusion from the rest of the hype-soaked Olympics in a year’s time. But with the venue not having hosted too many international competitions, for the shooters getting a feel of the ranges was vital.
“Since your anxiety levels are high during a competition like the Olympics, it can cloud the way you respond to a situation. So it’s good to get a feel of the place much in advance. Our shooters now have a head start, with an idea of the height of the targets, the lighting, the weather during the Olympics period and the wind conditions in the city. You know, small things that could make a big difference,” Suma Shirur, the 10m air rifle chief coach, told The Indian Express.
So far, India has won three quota places for Paris 2024, thanks to Bhowneesh Mendiratta (men’s trap), Rudrankksh Patil (men’s 10m air rifle) and Swapnil Kusale (men’s 50m rifle 3P). Shirur said that the idea of having a short camp at the Châteauroux almost exactly a year to the Olympics was to give the shooters a ‘head start’ for Paris 2024.
Small things that matter
Shooters like Anjum made copious mental notes about the range during their short stay. Having experienced the wind conditions at the range, she said 50m shooters will now look at finding a range that’s “windy enough” to train at back home.
“The biggest takeaway for me was understanding the weather, since in the 50m three position event, it’s an open range. The roof was not too high,” Anjum said before adding that she had made a mental note of the type of mats that were used at the 50m range, and the target lights used at the 10m range, which was a slightly different shade. (The floor at the indoor ranges at Châteauroux is a distinctly ivory white shade.)
“The lighting is not completely off. It’s a regular range only. In a way every range uses different lighting. Delhi, Bhopal, Kerala… all of them use different lighting. If you’re not a 10m air rifle shooter, you probably won’t even understand the difference. The range’s lighting also depends on the material used at the range… if it’s a cement floor or one with a wooden floor, the way the light reflects off it will also differ,” said Anjum.
“What also stood out for me was the simple infrastructure. It’s a very simple and easy range. Really beautiful. Very uncomplicated. I just hope it gets more colourful when the Games come along,” said Anjum.
Short, but intense camp
During the one week the shooting contingent was at Châteauroux, they spent 10 hours at the shooting range.
“There would be two buses that would leave from our hotel to the ranges, one at 7.30 and another at 8.30 in the morning. We’d only return at 6 pm in the evening having spent the entire day at the range doing training, competitions among ourselves and simulations for finals. Then the shooters would do their workouts or physio sessions in the evening after returning. It was a short, but very intense, camp. The intensity was a lot higher than our regular training camps,” Shirur said.
“There was nothing much to do around. There was just a small lake, where everyone would go on walks or for jogs. The most important thing in our hand is preparation. We don’t want to leave any stone unturned in the lead-up to Paris 2024. This is just one step in the direction of getting everything in place.”
(LEFT) Rifle shooter Anjum Moudgil with the Indian flat at an indoor range at Châteauroux; Chief coach Suma Shirur grabs a meal at the shooting range. (PHOTOS: Instagram/Anjum Moudgil, Suma Shirur) 
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