For Olympian Joydeep Karmakar, shooting is more of a family affair now

The shooting range is where Joydeep Karmakar, the Olympian shooter and a former national coach, naturally belongs. However, when he decides to make a "comeback" in the ongoing National Shooting Championship as a competitor – in tandem with his son and wife – it’s big news in the shooting fraternity.

While the sports arena has been often privy to all kinds of familial combinations like father-son, siblings or husband-wife taking part, instances of the entire family taking aim at the bull’s eye is unheard of.

The 67^th nationals, being held simultaneously in Bhopal and New Delhi is witnessing that – while son Adriyan has landed his first gold in junior men’s category and has two more events to go, wife Radhika acquitted herself creditably in the 10m air pistol event for Masters, Joydeep will test his skills in the Masters event on Sunday.

‘’I am happy with the way Adriyan’s campaign has started while Radhika did well  to finish 21^st among 59 competitors. As for me, I entered my name at the last moment and have just managed to squeeze in just a few short sessions of practice. It’s more like a refresher course for me,’’ said Joydeep, whose name figures among famous Indian athletes who endured the curse of a fourth place finish in London 2012 in 50m rifle prone event.

After a stint as the chief coach of the national rifle team, he is now at the helm of MP Shooting Academy in their state-of-the-art academy in Bhopal.

Adriyan,19, one of the upcoming talents in the sport which has given India three of the six medals in Paris Olympics, got his campaign off to a solid start when he kept his date with the gold medal in the junior men’s 50 metres rifle (three positions) earlier this week. Two of his other events: air rifle and the 50m rifle prone are still to go for Adriyan, currently ranked No.1 among juniors in his category.

Speaking to National Herald over phone, Sr Karmakar sounded cautiously optimistic about his son’s career. ‘’See, his long term goal is to make the cut for Los Angeles 2028. He is on the right track so far but come 2025, we have to take a call on whether he continues in the junior level for another year or competes with the seniors right away,’’ Joydeep observed.

“After my appointment as chief rifle coach of the Indian team in 2022, I decided to retire and I would like to keep my word. I will be competing in the Masters category and to be honest, there are some benefits in competing hands-on. Sometimes, you tend to forget some of the smaller nittygritties of the competition,” he said.

While it’s understandable where Adriyan’s passion for shooting came from, what brought Radhika – better known as a singer and radio jockey -- into the sport? ‘’It started almost from the time we have known each other,’’ Joydeep said lightheartedly.  

Starting off with rifle, Radhika won a medal in a state competition before taking a break. When she resumed a year later, she qualifed for the Nationals though she participated in pistol in her new innings.

A former world No.4 in the event, Joydeep’s last major international competition was a World Cup at the Czech Republic in 2015. “For a long time, my students had been urging me to return to competition. I gave in, in order to get better as a coach,” he signed off.