Asian Games gold-medallist marksman Ronjan Sodhi on Friday said the Indian shooting contingent’s preparations for the Paris Olympics could have been planned in a better way and demanded more say for sportspersons in the running of the national federation.

The Olympian double-trap shooter said the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) was late in announcing the 21-member contingent for Paris, adding that he still has high hopes from the jumbo squad.

A record number of shooters have qualified for the Paris Games with the previous best being 15 at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, raising expectations that India would break the jinx of going without a medal in the sport in the last two editions of the quadrennial showpiece.

Youth Olympic Games gold medallist Manu Bhaker will compete in the women’s 10m air pistol and the women’s 25m pistol events. She is the only athlete participating in more than one individual event and will also feature in the pistol mixed team event. Among the others, some notable names are Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Anjum Moudgil, Elavenil Valarivan and Sift Kaur Samra.

Asked if the preparations and the timing of the squad announcement were ideal, Sodhi, a Khel Ratna awardee, said: “I speak my mind... I don’t think so. It (timing) could have been better. It’s too late... two months before the games you (NRAI) are announcing the team?

“I would say you have to give six months to a year to give the athletes... People
are struggling to find their kit. So, things could have been better,” shotgun shooter Sodhi, who won gold at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, said.

While several shooting powerhouses in Europe and other part of the world announced their contingents in March-April, the NRAI announced the contingent after a series of four selection trials in two batches in mid-June, resulting in a lot of anxiety among shooters who had difficulty planning their preparations and foreign exposure trips.

“I think they (NRAI) must have thought about something, whether having trials at the last moment or whatever, whether there was a selection policy which was in order. I would say, there should be more sportspersons when it comes to selection matters in the whole (NRAI) panel,” the veteran marksman, who was ranked No.1 at his peak and won back-to-back World Cup Final gold medals in 2010 and 2011, said.

Sodhi hoped the shooting contingent would come up with a strong showing in Paris, though he did not put a number on the medals they could win.

“If you see, 21 shooters have qualified, which is the biggest (Indian) shooting contingent ever. I hope that they do well, but shooting is one sport nobody can predict.

“I was world No.2 going into the (2012 London) Olympics and didn’t win a medal. So let’s keep our fingers crossed. They’ve (the Indian shooters) trained well, they have a very good team of coaches and physiotherapists. They are in the best hands, so I hope they’ll do well.”