Manavjit Singh Sandhu is now a world no. 1. Indian shooters continue rise in rankings as Financial Express reports:

Trap shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu’s gold medal finish at the recent World Championships at Zagreb in Croatia helped him notch the world No 1 spot in world rankings.

Abhinav Bindra, who claimed a gold in 10m air rifle, also climbed 24 places to second position. Olympic silver medallist Lt Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore was fifth in the rankings in double trap.

Sportstar has an indepth profile on Manavjit. In another piece in the same issue of Sportstar, Kamesh Srinavasan reviews India’s most successful faring yet in the world championships.

I had blogged on Bindra winning gold a few weeks back. The creditable performance in Zagreb by the Indians was to be expected given the steady improvement of the Indian shooting contingent. Regardless of this, the performance is worth applauding.

I have noticed this phenomena - every time before the olympics, the media focuses on a few sports persons and think that they might win medals in the olympics. However, if you go into even a bit of detail regarding the given sportspersons, their track record isn’t usually notable.

You just don’t win olympic medals by showing up at olympics. There has to be performances to back you up and then, you have to have nerves of steel to deliver during the olympics. A lot of factors lead upto winning. Even if one small thing goes wrong, you can lose.

This time, the build up for the shooting contingent is going quite well and we are seeing new highs being reached each day. The one word to describe the Indian shooting contingent would be strong. That is usually not a word you associate with Indian sporting contingents. Usually it is talented or promising.

At the cost of sounding preachy, I will say this - this is a story which Indian sports fans should start following if they haven’t already.

That’s what Abhinav Bindra achieved as Telegraph reports:

Abhinav Bindra overcame back pain to become the first Indian shooter to win a World Championship gold in Zagreb on Monday. Dr Karni Singh’s silver in 1962 was the best by an Indian in a World Championship meet before Monday.

That no Indian had ever won a gold before is not surprising. After all, the shooting boom in India is not very old. The Indian shooting contingent for Beijing is looking stronger with each passing day. We have the likes of Narang, Samaresh Jung, Rathore and young guns like Bindra.

We disappointed tremendously last time in the Olympics but it will be shocking if we don’t win a few medals via shooting in Beijing. Here’s hoping the shooting contingent does India proud and I don’t have to write some thing on this topic again.

Update: Read Indian Express’ Navneet Singh write on Bindra coming back from the dead.