India's shooting squad for the Paris Olympics is due to be announced at some point over the next couple of weeks but there's already a buzz over the shooters who might not make the cut, due to their performance in the four-stage Olympic Selection Trials. The most surprising result is Sandeep Singh topping the men's 10m air rifle selections, ahead of former world champion Rudrankksh Patil, Tokyo Olympian Divyansh Singh Panwar and Olympic quota winner Arjun Babuta.
Those following the sport are now waiting for the final selection list, with Rudrankksh sending a letter pushing for his own inclusion despite not making the cut via the selection trials.
Rudrankksh's main reasoning is Sandeep's inexperience, especially at the highest levels of the sport. It's true that he does not have any international ISSF medals, or even major finals, to his name.
Not many, even among those following the sport, had heard of Sandeep (28) before these trials. A designated Naib Subedar in the Indian Army -- that's where he picked up the sport, while training with rifles -- he has served in the Siachen glacier, the world's highest battlefield. He's also served a brief doping suspension. He was part of the reserves squad for Tokyo 2021 Olympics but didn't make the cut.
At the trials, held in Delhi and Bhopal, he competed based on his national and QORG ranking. He topped the trials with stunning scores in qualification -- 634.4, 632.6, 631.6 and 628.3 (out of a possible 654), the latter the lowest after having all but qualified on his first three scores - which gave him an edge even without the bonus points.
In fact, those qualification scores were so good, he topped the charts without making the podium even once in four events.
Sandeep, though, feels he should have done even better. Currently, his competition track record is bizarrely split into superb qualifying scores and poor finals scores. In the trials, the qualification score was enough to make the cut.
"These [qualification] are not my highest scores, I have shot higher in training," he told ESPN in a lengthy conversation. "Abhi bhi thodi kami hain jo me aage poori karunga [I feel like I still haven't done enough and I will do more in the future.]"
Coming from anyone else, it may seem boastful, but Sandeep has seen things few athletes have. He is not a young prodigy who lit up the junior circuit. In fact, he is a sports shooter by serendipity more than choice: it all started when he joined the Indian Army in 2014 and displayed 'natural talent' with the rifle while doing his regular army training.
"In the army we have a training with the INSAS rifle (an assault weapon); when I fired that for the first time, I really liked it," he says. "My shooting with that rifle was also good so the superiors decided to let me try for the sport. In the shooting trials too, I was good and I liked holding that rifle, firing with. So that's how I started and then the centre started giving me good training."
He took it to very fast thereafter, winning his first medal after only three months. "My coach in the centre said back then that I was a natural shooter."
After his initial entry into the Indian national camp, he had to leave the sport after facing a doping suspension in 2020. He says it was lifted after an investigation but cost him his place at the Army Marksman Unit (AMU) in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh. Which is when he was posted on the Siachen glacier, the bleak climate there matching his mood.
"My name came in doping, after that I was very depressed and shooting performance went down," he recounts. "I tried to continue but AMU sent me on field for a time as my shooting was down. In Siachen, I was alone for a while...It was a difficult time and I thought a lot about shooting. I wanted to do this again, do well and go for the Olympics, that's the thought in my mind."
It lured him back to shooting. "I took permission from my superiors to shoot and restarted shooting. Accha laga [felt good.']
His natural ability and enhanced tenacity then combined to bring him back in national contention. "I missed Tokyo by a few points, [but] it was a good feeling so I felt like I can do, go for the next Olympics so I continued training."
His training is also unique, like his process in the qualification, where he says he barely glances at scores. He also claims to train less -- for only about three hours in a day -- because a shorter duration helps him maintain focus better.
"I follow my procedure, it's the same procedure for every shot, I have to shoot that... focus on a single shot. I don't look at scores. In my first match during the trials, I didn't even know my score because my entire focus was on my shot," he says.
For Sandeep, shooting is an extension of the discipline and structure he likes in being an army man.
"Mujhe discipline me shooting karna acha lagta hain. [I like shooting with discipline] We are taught discipline in the army, and we follow that... Everything fits well. It's not like this one shot is bad, I know what I have to do and maintain the discipline."
He is also taking help from psychologists and meditating. "We have good psychologists who have supported me a lot. I applied what they have taught me and it has helped."
He has also very recently realised the importance of associated factors like sports science, coming under the Reliance Foundation scholarship this January and getting help in nutrition and psychology. "Initially, I didn't know electrolytes and how much water I should be drinking and water. Now I am learning about this."
Crucially though, Sandeep has the AMU to fall back on. The AMU has produced a good number of Indian Olympians, and two winners. He has sometimes trained alongside Jitu Rai and London Olympic medallist Vijay Kumar, who have praised him. "They have said you are doing well and you'll make progress. Ek bade shooter se sun na acha lagta hain [it's good to hear that from a big shooter]."
But his unconventional start to shooting means that he sees the pressure of professional sport very differently -- and that could be a handicap at the highest levels.
For the Olympics, he will need to work on his mentality. He has not yet made a final in his four international appearances and failed to podium even among five shooters at the Olympic trials. Finals in shooting are much higher-pressure zone that qualifications and while the OST takes into account the average of qualification, this is a factor that could prove to be crucial. The men's 10m air rifle is 'the' shooting discipline when it comes to India at the Olympics; Abhinav Bindra won the historic first individual gold medal in it as did Gagan Narang with a bronze at London 2012.
For Sandeep to follow in that path, he has a big leap to make in the next two months. He is aware of the challenge and said he is working on it. "I am training to do better in finals. In AMU, we people are sitting behind in the range so we can feel the pressure of the event," he says. "I have to continue the process I am doing."
He has a chance to prove himself and put his training in action at the ISSF Munich World Cup in early June. If he reaches a final and perhaps the podium, it should end the debate about his ticket to Paris.