New Delhi: Sports Authority of India’s Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) is drawing flak from athletes in a year of the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games. The best shooting talents were ignored by TOPS in 2025 despite having its most successful result in a world championship.
Now frustration is spilling over as athletes are preparing hard for the Asian Games and LA Olympics qualification tournaments. The union government’s programme is meant to provide financial and holistic support to athletes but it seems little has been done after the Paris Olympics.
On Thursday, India swept the podium in 50m 3P at the Asian Championships here, after an intense and thrilling battle for the gold between teammates Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Niraj Kumar. World championships silver medallist Aishwary sealed the gold medal with a calm 10.7 on his final shot (total 362.0). Niraj, who gave him a tough fight all through, finished second with 361.8 points. Akhil Sheoran, the worlds bronze medallist from 2023, won bronze to complete the podium for India.
India’s men’s rifle three position team is world class, and when a member of the team says he had to struggle for ammunition during training, it needs to be taken seriously. Niraj has stepped up brilliantly in the last one year and even made it to the final of world championships in Cairo in November. It was precisely the time when he was looking forward to support from TOPS to get high quality ammunition for his training. But it never happened.
“It is frustrating,” says Niraj, who is in the Indian Navy. “I have been struggling to get enough high quality ammunition for training. Before going for the World Championships in Cairo (November) I requested TOPS for help and they said they are going to do a review but I have not heard anything yet,” Niraj said.
“I have to deal with ammunition that we get during national squad training and from the Navy — which is a bit old— but it’s not enough at this level. TOPS provides ammunition for training and that is big support, otherwise you have to import which is currently difficult. So it was a real struggle in training and I was doing dry holding,” he said.
Surprisingly, he was in the TOPS Developmental team till March last year, and was dropped when he became a regular member of 3P India team. Niraj won gold at the National Games and finished fifth in world championships with Aishwary winning silver.
“I don’t know why I was dropped after I made it to the India team. I went to two world cups and had a similar struggle. Now we are in preparation mode for the Asian Games and world championships, the selection trials are on, if I don’t get any support now then what is the point?” asked Niraj.
In December, HT highlighted some glaring omissions in TOPS with performances of several top shooters going unnoticed. Even 10m air pistol world champion Samrat Rana and Suruchi Phogat, who won three World Cup golds last year, were not good enough to be included in TOPS. Several top shooters HT spoke to are upset over the way the scheme is being run with such important competitions this year.
