Commonwealth Games 2018: Sustaining results is key, believes Indian shooting team manager Ronak Pandit

12 years ago in Melbourne, Ronak Pandit stood atop the podium alongside Samaresh Jung with gold around his neck. This was after the duo captured gold in the 25m Standard Pistol (Pairs) event at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Australia. It was one of 16 gold medals that Shooting brought home from those games, making up over 70% of India's gold medal count of 22 at the 2006 edition.

This year, he will be back in Australia with the Indian shooting contingent at the upcoming Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, as a non-athlete in a different role altogether, as high-performance manager on behalf of the National Rifles Association of India (NRAI).

Shooting has been a sport that India has excelled in and as a consequence, it has been medal-friendly in international competitions. However, this year's contingent will be looking to rebound from the unexpectedly low tally secured in the previous Games in Glasgow in 2014. Pandit is with the team to oversee key parameters of performance.

Sportskeeda managed to have a brief chat with Pandit on the sidelines of the team's preparation ahead of the Games.

Excerpts:

On what his role as high-performance manager entails...

Not a very defined role. Anything and everything related to performance is my responsibility, be it the quality of coaching or the communication from the coaches to the shooters. Shooters need to be in sync with the coaches and in line with what they have in mind. Then we have the support staff and so many other peripheral parts related to performance.

There are also logistical requirements when it comes to our travel - where we're staying, how far is it, whether it has all the facilities, weapon permits being ready on time.

Anything that the shooters may find a hindrance has to be ironed out by me. So I'm not just responsible for the coaches or the shooters, but in a way also responsible for the running of the federation in a way. So it's a very wide scope.

It's not my job to make the decisions, but to make observations, interact with all verticals (shooters, coaches, support staff, administration, federation, foreign academies) and submit my findings and recommendations to the federation. Then it's up to the federation to decide. The aim is that the federation can take well-informed decisions.

On the junior shooters excelling at the recent World Cup (India topped the tally for the first time ever at any shooting World Cup)...

Just fantastic! We've had this program from 2013-14 onwards. The results are, of course, showing fantastically now. But we have to be careful because it's one thing to give results, it's another to sustain them. So that's important. NRAI has started to think about how to transition these junior shooters into the senior level. All those things are being discussed and in the weeks and months ahead you will see these being rolled out.

On a new category possibly being created between senior and junior levels...

Right now, most of these youth shooters are attached to a coach. Once they become seniors, will they stay attached to these coaches? This is just one of the questions that need to be answered.

I can't explain much since it isn't formalized yet. But we have seen that going from junior to senior level is quite the shift. And in fact most juniors find it difficult to cope with these changes - to suddenly have new support staff and new methods of training, new coaches around them. Sometimes it's too much for them to handle and they lose track.

And you can't expect the senior coaches to give up their time with the existing seniors to focus on these new seniors. So these shooters get lost in transition. So we've been discussing this, on how we can slowly and effectively convert them. That's the background to it.

On the possibility of India losing out a huge source of medals with shooting now scrapped from the 2022 CWG to be held in Birmingham...

It is interesting. Shooting is such a strong point for India at these games and India being an important member of the Commonwealth, the IOA needs to flex it's muscles and take a strong stand.

India is a large participant in the Commonwealth Games. If India is not going to be a part of it, there's going to be a huge drop in performance in the Games.

Yes, the local organizers are entitled to take a stand, but how can an Olympic sport not be a part of an Asian Games or Commonwealth Games? So I find it quite baffling.

Yes, UK gun laws are very strict and right now since they are not very strong in shooting, they don't have any inclination to include the sport. It's understandable. But we should not forget we are a powerhouse and we should use our position.

On medal expectations from the shooting team from Gold Coast 2018...

I wish I could say all of them (laughs).

See ultimately, it comes down to that day. Sachin Tendulkar may have been the greatest batsman in the world, but there are times he's gotten out for a duck.

So it's tough to put down a number, but let's just say we're well prepared to win them all. We're going there with an open mind and will look to enjoy the competition. Some events have been cut down like how we don't have pair events anymore. So the probable number will be down too.

But what's important is the percentage of medals from the actual events taking place. I'm sure that we will have one of the best performances we've ever had in the Commonwealth Games.

(The 2018 Commonwealth Games begin on April 4th. The Shooting events will be held between April 8-14)