New format for National shotgun championship
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has thoughtfully introduced a new format for shotgun events for the forthcoming National championship scheduled to be staged by the end of the year.
Instead of making everyone shoot over a few days of unwieldy competition, much against accepted international practice and format, the new format will categorise the shooters based on the scores that make them eligible to compete.
The lowest set of shooters will be put in group 1, the next best in group 2, and the top shooters will figure in group 3, for trap.
Similarly, there will be two groups of skeet, as it does not have as many shooters as trap. The elite shooters will have two days of qualification, followed by the semifinals and finals on the third day, as per the international format.
The first two groups will have their competition over the first six days in case of trap, and for the first three days in case of skeet.
At the end of competition for all groups in trap and skeet, there will be a consolidated list of scores, from which the top eight will make the semifinal stage. This will be same for men, women and the juniors.
In case of any shooter from group 1 or 2 makes the cut, he or she will have to come back for the semifinals, which will be a week later for group 1 shooters, and a few days later for group 2.
Since the lower groups will have shooters of limited ability in terms of their scores, it is very unlikely that anyone, but for exceptional talent, could jump up so dramatically to be among the top eight in the consolidated list.
This way, even though the championship may be long, to cater to the hundreds of enthusiastic shooters from across the country, the top shooters will have the advantage of shooting as per international format.
Kamesh Srinivasan
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