Young shooters gunning for glory in Commonwealth Games

Having stamped their class on the big stage, the youngest shooters in the national team will again jostle for space with the big players, vying for top honours at the Belmont Shooting Complex in Brisbane from April 8 to 14. The abundance of talent is complemented by a confident approach which the likes of Manu Bhaker, Mehuli Ghosh, Anish Bhanwala and Anjum Moudgil will display at the Games. 

The mix of confidence and talent helped India produce its best-ever ISSF World Cup performance in the recently-concluded tournament in Mexico, where the shooters won an unprecedented nine medals, including four gold.

No wonder the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president is optimistic of a bright future. “I am thrilled that our faith in youngsters are giving results. This was a stupendous performance,” Raninder said. 

“We have key international events lined up throughout the year and a performance like this by youngsters of the squad bodes well,” he added. The NRAI boss deserves credit for doing his bit in streamlining the sport after the debacle at the 2016 Rio Olympics. 

India’s only individual Olympic gold medallist, Abhinav Bindra, specifically, lauded Raninder recently for the shooters’ stellar show, attributing it to the “vision” showed by the president and pointed to the investment in junior programme.

The teenage shooters not only impressed but did so in their maiden World Cup appearance, and will take the confidence into the Commonwealth Games, which will be followed by the World Championships and Asian Games. Jhajjar girl Manu, 16, stole the show at her international debut with gold in 10m air pistol and a day later bagged another yellow metal in the mixed team event alongside Om Prakash Mitharwal. Shooting happened to her by chance after a brush with contact sports.