Brewers this season.Bailey missed the first four months of the 2

Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra has been asked to head an independent inquiry set up by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) to examine the reasons for the shooting contingents failure to win a single medal at the Rio Olympics despite its largest-ever presence with 12 shooters qualifying for the Games.ESPN understands that Bindra awaits an official intimation from the NRAI on the objectives and frames of reference of the panel before announcing his decision on taking up the role.Bindra, participating in his last Olympics, came the closest among the shooters to winning a medal, finishing fourth in the 10m Air Rifle.The head of the panel will be assisted by an eminent sports administrator and a couple of members of the media, with a mandate to look thoroughly into every aspect of the shooting fiasco in Rio. NRAI President Raninder Singh told ESPN that he expects the inquiry to be complete in the next 2-3 weeks but insisted that he will not be putting in his papers although India has failed to win a shooting medal for the first time since the 2004 Athens Olympics. Raninder said, I am absolutely astounded that we are going back empty handed.He said, Based on data, watching my athletes prepare and their performances in the build up including the last World Cup a month ago, I was absolutely convinced we should have won three medals. It is a big setback for me and the federation but that doesnt mean you sweep it under the carpet and dont deal with it head on.My sport is the only one at the Olympics where weve had so many athletes get so close to getting into finals or actually getting into them. It is not an excuse for not winning medals but you have to see the role of an administrator separately from the role of an athlete. I have taken responsibility for it but I see no reason to be unceremoniously told to march off into the wilderness. I think I can serve my sport better if I use my experience of what Ive seen and learnt over here and after interacting with my athletes and coaches.Besides Bindra, only one other Indian shooter reached a final at Rio - Jitu Rai in the 10m Air pistol, where he finished eighth among the eight finalists in the field. Several others missed earning qualification to the finals by a whisker. Jitu himself, in his preferred event the 50m Pistol, dropped points in his final series to fall out of contention. In the 50m Prone, four-time Olympian Gagan Narang experienced a similar meltdown, with one poor shot ruining his chances of making the cut after a solid start. In the 25m Rapid fire pistol Gurpreet Singh in his first Olympics ended 7th, with the top six making the final. Similarly in the Rifle 3 Positions, Chain Singh and Skeet, Mairaj Khan, faded towards the latter half of their qualifying rounds after igniting hopes of making the cut. Raninder, who watched most of these competitions from the stands, believes this trend needs to be carefully examined.In case of Jitu, I am completely convinced that he misread the wind, he said. In most cases of our athletes we have had a petering out in the last series. This obviously means that there are deficiencies that our athletes have come into the Games with. One is endurance, both mental and technical. It is difficult to quantify this but yes endurance is an issue we have to look into.While some shooters such as Jitu and Narang could count themselves as unlucky to have been waylaid by the elements, others produced performances well below their personal bests. Apurvi Chandela and Ayokina Paul finished 34th and 47th in the 10m Air Rifle, the event that kicked the shooting programme off, recording scores much lower that they were registering in earlier competitions. Heena Sidhu faltered similarly in both her events, finishing 14th in the 10m Air Pistol and 30th in the 25m Pistol, an event she made the final for at the World Cup in Baku barely a month ago. Narang too struggled in his other two events, the 10m Air Rifle and the 3 Positions. The experience of having participated in three previous Olympics counted for little for Manavjit Singh Sandhu in the Trap, as he finished 16th.Eight members of our team were first timers, it was a young team, justifies Raninder. There are people who have not performed also, I am not going to vilify people by taking names but I know who they are, we are going to look into everything.While the here and now of the catastrophe in Rio will be scrutinised thoroughly, more systemic issues require attention as well. Boosted by funding from the government as elite athletes to help them prepare for the Olympics, several shooters such as Ayonika Paul in the 10m Air Rifle, Prakash Nanjappa in the 50m Pistol and Kynan Chenai in Trap, chose to work with their private coaches. Others like Jitu Rai and Gurpreet Singh received expertise from coaches at the Army marksmanship unit in Mhow.This created an unusual situation, with national coaches appointed by the Federation, offering their counsel and guidance but the shooters also turning to their individual coaches for advise. Unlike expenses for trips for foreign exposure, training camps and foreign coaches, that are also borne by the government but routed via the Federation, this funding is delivered directly to the shooters. With the benefit of hindsight, Raninder believes that has contributed to the underperformance of some shooters.This is a new phenomenon at least in shooting, he says. In the past it was always the national coach along with the support staff that would bring the team into the Olympics. Now we have found that funding has been provided at the request of the athletes for individual coaches. You train for one year with a particular coach, who has his own style and an independent thought process. Suddenly they switch to someone else who will obviously have his own take on how things should be done. This multiplicity of everyone trying to help it layers the athlete with more information than he or she needs. I am pretty sure it has caused some damage to us.This sudden downward spiral in Rio notwithstanding, the graph of Indian shooting has been on the upswing over the last decade or so. Once Rajyavardhan Rathore broke a glass ceiling by clinching silver at Athens in 2004 and Abhinav Bindra followed up with his historic gold at Beijing in 2008, academies and training centers sprouted up across the country. Participation at national level tournaments went through the roof and Indian shooters started to win medals at international competitions consistently. Once pistol-shooter Vijay Kumar and Gagan Narang delivered two medals at London in 2012, shooting rightfully assumed the status of Indias premier Olympic sport.Quite clearly, Rio has stalled the engine of a smoothly functioning vehicle that was expected to gain speed over these last couple of weeks. The challenge will be to get the repair work started in earnest at the earliest so podium places can be claimed at Tokyo in four years from now.Cheap NHL Jerseys Fast Shipping . -- The St. Johns IceCaps weathered a wild first period with the help of goaltender Jussi Olkinuora, before finding offensive inroads in the second. Cheap Adidas NHL Jerseys . -- Aldon Smith believes he is on the path to being sober for good. http://www.cheaphockeychina.com/ . LOUIS -- St. Hockey Jerseys China . With their top three point guards and Kobe Bryant all sidelined by injury, the Lakers signed Marshall out of the D-League on Friday before their home game against Minnesota. Cheap Anaheim Ducks Jerseys China . Deulofeu injured a muscle in his right leg in Evertons 4-1 win over Fulham in the English Premier League on Saturday. Barcelona says that its team doctors will "co-ordinate" with Evertons medical staff as Deulofeu recovers.MILWAUKEE -- After snapping out of an offensive funk Thursday with an 11-3 rout over the Atlanta Braves at Miller Park, the Milwaukee Brewers will try to keep things rolling when they open a three-game series in Milwaukee against their National League Central rival, the Cincinnati Reds.To do that, theyll need Jimmy Nelson to snap out of his own recent funk.He will take the mound Friday night looking to win for the first time in five starts. He has lost each of his last four starts, posting an 8.00 ERA during that stretch while allowing 16 earned runs in 18 innings of work.Hes not where he we wants to be or where we want him to be, Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said. Things are snowballing a little bit. We have to get more quality pitches. Every pitcher goes through this, there is going to be stuff that goes on, and you have to move on to the next pitch. Thats the game. Jimmys preparation is second to none.Nelson hasnt made it out of the fifth inning in any of those outings and hasnt made it past the sixth in 11 of his last 12. He allowed six earned runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings his last time out, striking out four, with three walks, two hit batters and a wild pitch in a 9-3 loss to Arizona.Im just trying to stay positive at this point, Nelson said. Most of the stuff in that game was my fault. The three-run inning (fourth). Got balls up that got away from me.Homer Bailey will make his third start of the season for the Reds, who arrive in Milwaukee with a .dddddddddddd500 mark in their last 16 games and 5-5 against the Brewers this season.Bailey missed the first four months of the 2016 season while still recovering from Tommy John surgery performed in May 2015. He took the victory in his debut, allowing just two runs over 5 2/3 innings against the Padres on July 31, but he only lasted three innings his last time out and was charged with five runs on eight hits and a walk with four strikeouts in a 5-3 loss at Pittsburgh.Luckily the bullpen did a great job today, the starter just wasnt worth a damn, Bailey said after the game.Manager Bryan Price said after the game that it wasnt uncommon for a pitcher to show that kind of inconsistency after returning from such a major procedure.This is a part of the recovery, Price said. He didnt feel as electric in Game 2 as he did in Game 1 last week in San Diego, and thats probably going to be a part of what this looks like every now and again over the course of the rest of the season as he gets his arm really back into 100 percent pitching shape. Its certainly something I anticipated along the way and hoped we wouldnt see it for a little while. Today just wasnt his best stuff.Friday will mark Baileys 22nd career start against the Brewers, against whom he is 4-8 with a 4.86 ERA, including a 2/3 mark with a 4.80 ERA in 10 career starts at Miller Park. ' ' '