Karmakar predicts 'at least 3' medals in shooting

KOLKATA: At this time of the year four Julys ago, Joydeep Karmakar had been preparing to train in Germany, at the academy of Abhinav Bindra's coach Heinz Reinkemeir, as part of his final preparation for the London Olympics.With another Olympics round the corner and having failed to make the cut for the Rio Games, Joydeep will this time be rooting for the Indian contingent from home.However, the 36-year-old — who missed an Olympic medal by a whisker after finishing fourth in London — believes that the shooters will again provide the best chance for India to win medals."Indian shooters have the potential of winning at least three medals in Rio," Joydeep said here on Tuesday. "The competition will be held in a new format. It has its advantages and disadvantages. But I expect as many as seven shooters to make the finals and, from thereon, it’s anybody’s game," he added.From the 12 Indian shooters who will vie for glory in Rio, Joydeep picked Jitu Rai, Gurpreet Singh and Ayonika Paul as 'strong medal prospects.'"Jitu is the man for the big occasion. He's no 1 (in 10m air pistol) and has been consistently winning medals in World Cup meets. He's in the top bracket and if he can carry forward his form to Rio, he should end up winning a medal," Joydeep felt.Analysing Ayonika's chances, Joydeep said she is known for her "mental strength" and that should give her an edge over others in the women's 10m air rifle event.A silver-medallist in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the Mumbai-based Ayonika confirmed her berth to Rio by winning silver at the Asia Olympic qualifying competition, held in New Delhi earlier this year.Joydeep tipped Gurpreet as the one who can be a "surprise package" in Rio.Having earned the second quota place for India after Bindra at the ISSF World Cup in Munich last year, Gurpreet's performance graph in 25m rapid fire pistol has since fluctuated a bit, but Joydeep believed that he could live up to his billing next month."Gurpreet is a very mentally strong guy. You never know what he can do on his day. He should make it to the podium," the Bengal shooter maintained.According to Joydeep, the new format — in which the finalists will have to start from scratch and won't have their qualification points carried forward — may throw up some interesting and unusual results."Heena (Sidhu) is capable of scoring big while Abhinav is very meticulous in his approach to the game. Had the new format been in place in London, I would have ended up winning silver. But given the fact that you have to start from zero in the final, there will be little room for error because you won’t get a chance to recover. It may so happen that the one who finished on top in the qualifiers may be the first to get eliminated in the final," he said.In London four years ago, Vijay Kumar won a silver and Gagan Narang bagged bronze as India finished 55th in the medal standings with their best-ever aggregate of six medals."Indian shooters may bag more medals and exceed expectations," Joydeep signed off.