Joydeep Karmakar resigns from his post of India's chief national rifle shooting coach

Joydeep Karmakar has resigned as India's rifle shooting coach due to bad atmosphere in the team.

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Before Joydeep, trap coach Russell Mark and skeet coach Lauryn Mark also resigned. Laura was the Indian skeet team coach and also the high-performance manager of the team. Jaideep has problems with the new High Performance Direct as well.

At the same time, Bhaskar Bhatt, the coach of the women's boxing team, has also left his post. While Bhaskar Bhatt was there, India had won four gold medals in this year's World Boxing Championship. Nikhat Zareen became world champion twice. Bhaskar Bhatt has been sent to the Sai Rohtak National Center of Excellence. Where he has been working for the last one month. Bhatt became the boxing coach in November 2021. He was also very close to the players.

Both these resignations can be very costly for India. Both these coaches had a good rapport with the players. It will take time for the new coach to establish such a relationship. There is only three months for the Asian Games. Both boxing and shooting are the sports in which India hopes to win maximum medals.

"It is true that I have resigned. I had not heard from the NRAI about the new contract and also I wanted to get away from the toxic environment within the team." Joydeep Karmakar told the reporter.

The former Indian shooter, whose contract as the national team coach ran till 2025, was tasked with preparing the Indian rifle shooters during the ongoing Olympic cycle. Joydeep Karmakar's appointment had come after India's failure to win a medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics despite sending an unprecedented 15-member shooting contingent.

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Under Joydeep Karmakar's watch, Rudrankksh Patil clinched the men's 10m air rifle gold medal at the world championships last year. It was India's first gold medal in the event at the worlds since Abhinav Bindra topped the podium in 2006.

Joydeep Karmakar missed out on a medal at the London 2012 Olympics after finishing fourth in the men's 50m rifle prone event. He last represented India in 2014 but announced his retirement officially in May 2022. After that, he joined as India's rifle coach. The NRAI had named Manoj Kumar as the chief coach of the team instead of Joydeep for the Baku World Cup last month.