Pavel clearance raises questions

PUNE: The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), which had followed a strict policy in allotting the 12 Olympic berths to meritorious shooters, seems to have opened itself to scrutiny while nominating the coaches for the Rio Games.
According to NRAI secretary Rajiv Bhatia, Stanislav Lapidus (personal coach for Gagan Narang, Chain Singh and Apurvi Chandela, rifle), Heinz Reinkemeier (personal coach of Abhinav Bindra, rifle), Ronak Pandit (personal coach of Heena Sidhu, pistol), national coach Ennio Falco (Mairaj Khan in skeet), Marcello Dradi (Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Kynan Chenai in trap) and Pavel Smirnov , the national pistol coach, will be travelling to Brazil.Though the NRAI has been accommodating in allowing Lapidus, Heinz and Ronak to accompany their wards despite them not being the national coaches, Pavel's presence will come into focus as none of the pistol shooters train directly under him.
Jitu Rai, Gurpreet Singh and PN Prakash are the other three pistol shooters who will be competing in Rio. While Rai and Singh train at the Army Marksmanship Unit in Mhow, Prakash takes his father Papanna's guidance in Bangalore. The trio come under Pavel only when they participate in the World Cups and continental events like Asian Games. However, if any of the three wins a medal, Pavel will stand to gain from the cash award given by the government.
Asked what value addition Pavel will bring to the marksmen, Bhatia said, “Pavel is officially the national coach. Shooters may say that they have their personal coaches, but the fact is that both Jitu and Gurpreet have honed their skills under Pavel.“
It appears that NRAI was under pressure to send Pavel's name for clearance to Sports Authority of India (SAI) since the federation had named him as the national coach. Pavel's salary is paid by SAI and hence it is mandatory to convince the government officials that Pavel will be of help at the Rio Games.
Pavel has a lot to his credit when it comes to Indian achievements on the big stage. The then Army coach was instrumental in Vijay Kumar winning the silver in the 25m rapid fire event at the last Olympics in London. It prompted the NRAI to rope him as national coach in 2013. But things have changed in four years.
Adding a twist to the story is the fact that the Army will be sending its coaches to help the trio in Brazil at no cost to the government. “We have a team of eight people who are working with Jitu and Gurpreet. Moreover, Gurpreet is also training with multiple gold medallist and German coach Ralf Schumann,“ Colonel Lalit Sharma, commanding officer at the AMU, told TOI.