Slice of Italy for Manavjit

Published>Wed, Sep 29 10 06:39 AM

The blinkers are firmly strapped on for former trap World Champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu, who is desperately trying to regain lost form in distant Italy ? far away from the bedlam of the Commonwealth Games back home. Sandhu has shut himself out in the run-up to the Games, after having struggled of late in what was once labeled his Midas-touch event.

And in a bid to recover some of that lost form that won him the big prize at the 2006 World Championship, Sandhu has been training hard in Masari, 70 km from Bologna, Italy, in seclusion.

Sandhu, the 2006 World Champion, had finished a shocking 68th at the Munich World Championships in August and followed that with a disappointing 11th place out of 13 shooters at the ISSF finals in Izmir, Turkey.

Following a strict regimen designed by shotgun coach Marcello Dradi, Sandhu is training under the watchful eyes of Sera fino Castelliano, who has previously helped many Indians, including Ronjan Singh Sodhi in the past.

"He has switched off his phone and is at peace near Bologna, where he doesn't need to think about driving his car through traffic or other mundane things that one needs to do daily here. All he has to do is train out there. In fact he is sleeping at the range itself!" coach Dradi said.

The shooter sought seclusion after lows closely followed on the heels of his highs this season. Sandhu started the year in supreme form topping the Commonwealth Shooting Championship in February ahead of Vella and also setting the record at the meet with 146 hits. But the 33-year-old last tasted success trapping gold at the World Cup in Mexico. Since then he has been struggling for confidence as form deserted him ? the Munich slide compounded by his inability to qualify for the finals at Izmir a month later.

Of the shooting events, the trap field is the most competitive with Australian duo of Michael Diamond and Adam Vella leading the world charts ? this daunting task forcing the Indian marksman to further tunnel his vision. "He's away from all the media glare. We have tough competition in trap with Diamond and Vella in the field.

He wanted to be away from distractions, so he's in Italy training. He'll be back here soon," said Dradi.

Diamond is a two-time Olympics gold medallist from Atlanta and Sydney and is ranked sixth in the world at present. Vella had won a bronze at Athens Olympics and is ranked ninth, a rung above the 33-year-old marksman.

Coach Dradi, though, remains unflinching in his support. "We are talking about a world champion here. He has already won a gold in the World Cup this year. The last thing that he wants right now is to be asked questions about his chances and form," the Italian stressed.

"He left for Italy after competing at the Turkey meet. He wanted to sort out a few issues," Manavjit's father Gurbir Singh Sandhu pointed out.

Source: Web Search