Former pistol ace and Olympian Jitu Rai was among the 16 new shooters, who were appointed as coaches of the national team. This was among the several key decisions taken at the Governing Body meeting of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), held here on Saturday.
Dronacharya award recipients Deepali Deshpande and Jaspal Rana, who have made a comeback into the national coaching setup, were also appointed as head coach (Rifle) and high-performance coach (25m), respectively.
In all, a total of 16 new members were appointed to the coaching team, with 19 being retained, including one coordinator (Amar Jung Singh) and two coaches (Priti Sharma and Anuja Jung) for Deaf Shooters.
Besides Jitu, the other prominent former shooters who were appointed new national team coaches were Pooja Ghatkar (10m Air Rifle), Pemba Tamang (25m Pistol), Amarinder Cheema (Skeet) and Varsha Tomar (Trap) among others.
Two high-performance managers, namely Mansher Singh and Ronak Pandit, have also been appointed for the disciplines of Shotgun and Pistol respectively. Besides Jaspal, others who have been appointed high-performance coaches include D.S. Chandel (Air Rifle), Anwer Sultan (Trap) and Manoj Kumar (50m Rifle).
The seasoned Vikram Chopra (Shotgun) and Samaresh Jung (Pistol) have also been retained and will form a troika of head coaches alongside Deepali.
Among other key decisions regarding the inaugural Shooting League of India (SLI) were also taken at the meeting. Among them Elena Norman, the former CEO of Hockey India, was appointed as a consultant for the league.-