Tokyo Olympics 2021: Ronak, Oleg, Samaresh among shooting coaches bound for the Games

Members of the rifle and pistol team and their coaches, will join the Italy-based skeet shooters in Amsterdam before leaving for Tokyo on July 16.

Pandit and Samaresh Jung will be training the pistol contingent, who have qualfied for the Games.

Ronak Pandit, Oleg Mikhailov and Samaresh Jung will be among the seven coaches travelling with the Indian shooting squad to the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.

"Ronak has been training Manu for the past six months, before the New Delhi World Cup, so he is there," a source in the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) said.

"Logistical hurdles" arising out of the coronavirus situation came in the way of the NRAI plans to rotate all its coaches during the Games.

Mikhailov, appointed in 2017, will be in charge of the rifle team along with Deepali Deshpande and Suma Shirur.

Samaresh Jung and Pandit will be training the pistol contingent comprising Saurabh Chadhary, Manu Bhaker, Abhishek Verma, Yashaswini Singh Deswal and Rahi Sarnobat.

READ: India names 15-member shooting team for Tokyo Olympics

Former India shooter Mansher Singh, chief coach of the Indian shotgun team, will be helping out skeet shooters -- Angad Vir Singh Bajwa and Mairaj Ahmad Khan.

Apart from the coaches, also accompanying the team will be physiotherapist Zeinia Samar.

Members of the rifle and pistol team and their coaches, who are currently training in Zagreb, Croatia, will join the Italy-based skeet shooters in Amsterdam before leaving for Tokyo on July 16.

Jaspal Rana, who has played an influential role in the emergence of talented young shooters in recent years,will not part of the travelling contingent. As won't foreign pistol coach Pavel Smirnov.

The Indian contingent shifted base to Zagreb as it was considered safer for them to train there at a time when the country reeled under a devastating second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.