Former Olympian Joydeep Karmakar is upset that his pet 50m rifle prone event has been dropped from 2020 Tokyo Games but observed that overall, India’s medal chances at Olympics would only increase with mixed team events, reported PTI.
Tokyo Olympics will see four men’s only shooting events such as the 50m Prone Rifle and Pistols competitions removed and replaced with mixed-gender events such as the 10m Air Pistol and Rifle.
The London 2012 Olympian agonisingly missed a bronze medal in the 50m prone event by margin of less than two points, “Personally I feel very upset. The federation could not do much do retain the prone events but overall India’s medal chances will definitely increase,” he said. “We always dominate in the air weapon events so it’s a good prospect for India,” he added.
The 37-year-old, who runs a shooting academy in his name, will be organising fourth West Bengal Inter-School Shooting Championships, a four-day event beginning tomorrow at the New Town School.
Over 100 students from 40 schools across the state will compete in the competition which will be held in 13 events and three special events.
Karmakar sees this event as a launch pad for budding shooters and cited example of Mehuli Ghosh who ended the year 2016 with a bang, winning two gold and seven silver medals in the 60th national shooting championships in Pune in December.
Mehuli will also be seen in action against her rival from Jaipur Manini Kaushik in an spectators-friendly exhibition event, titled ‘Epic Duel’ on the final day.
