India trap coach Russell Mark urges selection revamp

The Australian shooting great and respected coach wants those outside of the top three to also come into contention and give India the best chance to end the wait for a shotgun Olympic medal.

Australian shooting great Russell Mark wants India to have a more pragmatic and concise selection policy to end the wait for an Olympic medal in shotgun events since Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore’s double trap silver at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Australian Olympic champion shooter Russell Mark (Getty Images)

Mark, who won double trap gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and silver at Sydney in 2000, was appointed shotgun coach by the National Rifle Association of India in May to help prepare for the 2024 Paris Games. India failed to win a shooting medal in the last two Olympics and have not won a medal in shotgun events after Rathore’s podium finish.

Vastly experienced as a coach, he coached Rathore to the Athens medal and has also guided former double trap world No 1 Ronjan Singh Sodhi. The event is no longer in the Games with only trap part of the Olympic programme.

“The world was shocked to find that Indian shooters were missing in the trap event in the Tokyo Olympics,” he said. “We will prepare hard to achieve that goal but even qualifying for Paris would be good for the shotgun team.”

The Indian trap team has youth and experience, and shooters with fine technique. “But medal in Olympics can’t be won only by technique, it also needs strong mental and other abilities,” he said. “Therefore, we require a more realistic and pragmatic selection policy.”

The focus should be on shooting with higher precision in the semi-final and final, crucial to competing for medals, he said.

Mark said the existing policy lays more stress on average of scores, due to which shooters compete with each other to maintain that average to stay in top three to and make it to the national team for international events. “Athletes need to compete in more and more tournaments to get exposure and it will help in their desired grooming.”

He said: “When we have good shooters why restrict opportunities only to the top three shooters? We can develop more good shooters with a combination of good technique and mental abilities.”

Mark's wife Lauryn Mark is the high-performance manager of the Indian shotgun team. She won three skeet gold medals in the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games.