New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) Jaspal Rana and Deepali Deshpande have made a return to the setup as several former shooters were on Saturday confirmed as coaches of the national team as per decisions taken by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).
These appointments were among several key decisions taken at the NRAI’s Governing Body Meeting (GBM) held at Constitution Club in the national capital earlier on Saturday.
Also appointed as head coach (Rifle) and High-Performance Coach (25m) respectively were Dronacharya Award recipients Deepali Deshpande and Jaspal Rana, who have made a comeback into the national coaching setup. 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.
Prominent among former shooters who have been appointed new national team coaches are former pistol ace Jitu Rai (Padma Shri and Khel Ratna recipient for 10m Air Pistol) as well as former internationals 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 Deshpande.
Other key decisions regarding the inaugural Shooting League of India (SLI) were also taken at the meeting. Included in these decisions was the appointment of Elena Norman, the former CEO of Hockey India, as a Consultant for the league. New Horizons Alliance Pvt. Ltd. was appointed as the Commercial and Marketing Agency.
List of newly-appointed coaches:
Mansher Singh — High-Performance Manager; Amarjung Singh — coordinator; Vikram Chopra — Head coach, Anwar Sultan — High-Performance Coach; Hemraj — coach; Yoginder Pal Singh — coach, Varsha Tomar — coach; Krishna Kumar — coach; Neelanjana Ghosh — coach; Jodhbir Singh — coach; Amarinder Singh Cheema — coach; Ronak Pandit — High-Performance Manager; Deepali Deshpande — head coach; Samaresh Jung — head coach; D.S Chandel — High-Performance Coach; Veerpal Kaur — coach; Pooja Ghatkar — coach; Prajakta Hossur — coach; Manoj Kumar — High-Performance Coach; Satgurudass — coach; Sanjeev Rajput — coach; Meena Kumari — coach; Vidhya Jadhav — coach; Om Prakash — coach; Sonia Rai — coach; Jaywardhan Chauhan — coach; Jitu Rai — coach; Rajiv Sharma — coach; Jaspal Rana — High-Performance Coach; Ankush Bharadwaj — coach; Wazeer Singh Rathee — coach; Pemba Tamang — coach; PritiSharma — coach, deaf; Anuja Jung — coach, deaf.
–IANS
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