Vijay Kumar's coach wants to train India's pistol team

The National Rifle Association of India has forwarded Pavel Smirnov's name to SAI after the Russian, who turned London Olympics silver medallist Vijay Kumar into a champion marksman, expressed his interest in becoming the pistol coach of the Indian shooting team.

"He (Smirnov) is keen on becoming the coach of the Indian shooting team, so we have forwarded his name to the Sports Authority of India yesterday," NRAI's secretary, Rajeev Bhatia told PTI.

The post of pistol coach is the only vacant slot in the Indian coaching team after the departure of Anatoli Poddubny, who took over a few months before the London Games, but whose contract was not renewed by SAI.

Some days back, the NRAI was learnt to have approached Vijay for helping the federation find a suitable replacement for Poddubny. It was also reported in the media that the shooting body had sought the assistance of Beijing Games gold medallist Abhinav Bindra to find a coach.

One of the best in the world, the soft-spoken coach from Moscow has been with the Army Marksman Unit in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh, since 2007. He has been working with Vijay for the last six years.

Prior to the quadrennial extravaganza in the British capital last July-August, Smirnov remained like a shadow with the 27-year-old modest shooter from Hamirpur district in Himachal Pradesh.

Not just Vijay, Smirnov was also showered with a lot of praise, after the former became the first Indian pistol shooter to win an Olympic medal.

The Russian's appointment was a part of the Army's Olympic Mission Programme that was launched in 2004 with an aim to turn potential talents into medal winners.

Smirnov has always maintained that army shooters have the ability to win medals at top international tournaments, including multi-sport events like the Olympics, Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games.