Joydeep Karmakar has been brought in with the 2024 Paris Olympics in mind but the 2022 Asian Games, about four months away, will be the new coach’s first big assignment.
Kolkata: Indian rifle shooters went through some troubled times at 2020 Tokyo Olympics, when a combination of young and experienced markspersons failed to bag medals amid high expectations. The rifle shooters — who had the likes of Elavenil Valarivan, Divyansh Singh Panwar, Sanjeev Rajput among its ranks – cut a sorry figure at the mega quadrennial event while their pistol counterparts at least had some final appearances to save their faces.
Facing the heat, the Indian shooting federation (NRAI) chief Raninder Singh promised a coaching overhaul and fired all coaches post Olympics only to retain all of them earlier this week. In fact, barring Jaspal Rana, the entire coaching contingent return to the fold while a new addition was made in Olympic shooter-turned-coach Joydeep Karmakar, who took charge as national chief rifle coach last Monday.
The 42-year-old former marksman has been brought in with the 2024 Paris Olympics in mind but the 2022 Asian Games will be the first test for Karmakar. However, for somebody, whose professional shooting career saw him miss out on a 2012 London Olympic medal by just a spot, the 2002 World Cup silver medallist has grown out of the shadow of the shooter, who finished fourth at the Olympics.
Since 2015, Joydeep has been running a shooting academy successfully in Kolkata without any government funding and the hard work at the grassroots level bore fruit as his shooters have returned champions at the state’s shooting competition for back-to-back years while elite talents like Mehuli Ghosh and Abhinav Shaw also cropped up.
Speaking to Firstpost.com a day after taking charge as national chief coach at the famous Dr Karni Singh Range in Delhi, the proud coach explained how he finally felt ready for the role after declining the same offer three years ago to achieve his dream of taking shooting to the masses in his hometown Kolkata.
Excerpts
Q: After being approached for the role in 2019, how surprising was it to get a call from NRAI for the second time and what changed this time for you to take it?
A: It is a fact that I never contemplated (this move) even three years back. I had duties back at home (Kolkata) as I had to set up my shooting academy. My primary objective at that time was to spread awareness of the sport as that part of the country knew a little about shooting and facilities were lacking as well.
But now this time around, it was a little surprising to me as I didn’t expect Mr president (Raninder) to approach me like this and I agreed soon after giving it a thought. I felt that after working at the grassroots level, it was time for me to take on greater responsibilities and I felt ready as I felt satisfied with the work I had done in the region so far. But I am not handed the job suddenly as it was in the process for the last three months as it was done in a very democratic manner and legal way.
Q: You just said you felt satisfied with what you achieved with your academy, could you please tell us more on that?
A: Yeah, I think it is down to what we achieved as part of our primary objective. When we began back in 2015, the objective was to have a number of facilities for not just youngsters but the masses. I wanted to avoid the cliche of blaming the government and thought of doing it myself. Upon my return from the 2012 Olympics, I was seen as a protagonist of the sport in the region, which gave me the opportunity to set up my own facility and I did it without any government funding or sponsorship.
And when kids came and turned into shooters who went on to represent at the Nationals, the satisfaction was immense. Of course, some of them winning medals at the national level and international level was a bonus but nothing beats the satisfaction of doing that ground-level work of training more than 600 shooters.
Q: So at a time when you have trained and mentored with kids at grassroots, how do you think it will come helpful in your new role?
A: Of course, from the outside, both look like shooting only but the dynamics of working at the grassroots and elite-level athletes are quite different. The national coach has the huge responsibility of looking after the top 30 shooters of India and some of them are even World No. 1.
But being in the coaching field after 25 years of shooting experience, I don’t think I have any surprise element waiting for me because I have been there and done that.
I was with the Indian shooting team for a long time, I have seen the coaches, the drawbacks and the positives also. I have the experience of playing at the highest level and adding the experience of working at the grassroots with the youngsters only adds to the spectrum of experience that will help me.
Q: Fellow chief coach Suma Shirur, who earlier served as the junior rifle coach, will also be working with you and is a trusted figure among the junior shooters. How helpful it is to have a colleague like her?
A: We have been colleagues and fellow shooters for a very long time and we travelled abroad together for many competitions which led to a very cordial relationship. This only allowed us to quickly get to work and had meetings to discuss how we want to go about our plans for the future. It’s always easy to work with a smart and intelligent lady like her who is very talented as a coach, it has been very easy to share a working space with her and makes my job easier.
Q: Still, it’s going to be quite a challenge for you to handle a team that has a mix of young and veteran shooters. And each of them is a different character and might require different approaches to handle them all individually with care. How do you plan to do that?
A: Yeah, shooting is a very individual sport I would call it because it’s your individual approach that will change the result, nobody can alter it for you. And at the same time, being non-physical sport, demands a lot of mental strength as it’s your quick and analytical thinking that will make a lot of difference. There are some old shooters in the team who have the experience and then there are young shooters who just made it to the team after doing well at the trials for the first time and will be soon competing at the World Cup. My job at the moment is to get to know them individually and then take things forward from there.
Q: As you mentioned, at the national trials we saw new faces do pretty well, which only points at the huge pool of talent. So how hopeful that make you in a year that has Asian Games and World Championships, which will have quota for the Paris Olympics?
A: Yeah, at the recent trials we saw 28-30 shooters shot very high but the data we have at the moment is limited as slate was wiped clean when the National Championship began last December. In fact, we don’t know if these shooters will maintain consistency with the scores and that’s why there is a bit of nervousness in the air. Many of these shooters are unknown names and will be competing at the World Cup for the first time in three weeks. But World Cup is not my big concern, it’s the Asian Games and World Championships that are very important for us and we need to prepare our shooters to be ready for that.
Q: Since you said Asian Games are going to be important, won’t it be a bit unfair on you that there will be expectations from you to deliver less than five months into your new job?
A: Of course, Asian Games may look like an uphill task but I am not going to be bogged down by the expectations. I have always enjoyed challenges as a shooter and I have always delivered. There are going to be negative and positives, but what I have in my hand is giving my 100 per cent and for the Asian Games, I will be doing the same.
Q: And how important do you think exposure trips are going to be before the big ticket events, especially keeping in mind that there are fresh faces in the squad.
A: Judging by the current team and scenario, post-pandemic a lot has been lost. I would recommend exposure trips for all the newcomers as they need to get hardened about the level of pressure and quality of competition they are going to face. Technically, they are sound and capable of delivering world-class scores but when it comes to high-pressure games, they may need experience.
Sadly, two World Cups are all we have leading to the Asian Games and World Championships as far as top-level competitions are concerned as post-pandemic many events are still getting cancelled. And with the time constraint, we may have opted for high-intensity matches locally if exposure trips are not possible.
Q: In the past, we have discussed how the core star-studded shooting team was disrupted before the 2020 Olympics due to long gaps caused by COVID-19 and you stressed how having a core shooting team is vital. So being in a situation where you have a mixed bag of shooters, by what time do you think you will have your core team for the 2024 Olympics?
A: 2023 is the vital year as we aim to consolidate the core group. I think by September-November, we should have a core team ready, we will have a better idea on that once the 2023 calendar is out. There is another World Championship next year and by that time we will have a ground reality on where we stand with respect to the Paris Olympics.
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