India's teenage shooting stars Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary smashed the qualification World record before clinching the 10 metres air pistol mixed team gold in the 12th Asian Airgun Championship in Taoyuan, Taipei, on Wednesday.
Trap shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu got the nod ahead of Sanjeev Rajput as the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) announced its final shooting squad of 12 for the Rio Olympic Games in New Delhi on Saturday.
Ace shooter Gagan Narang's academy, 'Gun For Glory', will organise a national-level shooting championship at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Mahalunge-Balewadi from August 3 to 9.
When the sun rises in 2022, the Indian hospitality industry will be waking up with prayers for survival, desperately looking forward to some form of support from the government as revival from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic of the last two years will be an arduous journey. Just as the industry was beginning to see a flickering light at the end of a long tunnel towards the end of 2021, the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus and subsequent extension of suspension of scheduled international passenger flights till January 31, 2022, has come as a dampener to those who were looking to have some business in the winter season. With inbound tourist arrivals unlikely amidst the pandemic, the industry wants the government to incentivise domestic travels with income tax benefits for a limited period so as to help the hospitality and tourism sector get up again by tapping the pent up demand for holidays, within the country.
It was business as usual for India's top shooters Monday as they competed in the Olympic team selection trials in New Delhi at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has brought daily life to a grinding halt around much of the world. As the world around them battled the coronavirus pandemic, the sound of shots fired from their guns, rifles and their pistols reverberated across the Karni Singh Shooting Range, tucked away in one corner of the national capital.
Abhinav Bindra said he is not in favour of boycotting the 2022 Commonwealth Games
India's pistol shooter Heena Sidhu pulled out of the Asian Airgun Shooting Championship in Iran due to the compulsory hijab rule for all women athletes.
The Games' Sport-Specific Regulations (SSR) has been developed jointly by IOC and the IFs to determine the impact of a confirmed positive COVID-19 case and its management in competition formats and structures.
The gold rush continued for Indian shooters at the ISSF World Cup in New Delhi as Ganemat Sekhon and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa claimed the skeet mixed team top honours on the fifth competition day on Tuesday.
Asian Games gold medallist Jitu Rai has been recommended for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for his exploits in pistol shooting in the last two years although he couldn't win a medal in the Rio Olympics. "Yes, we have recommended Jitu's name for Khel Ratna award," National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) secretary Rajiv Bhatia said. NRAI has also recommended woman rifle shooter Apurvi Chanela and men rifle shooters Gurpreet Singh and PN Prakash for the Arjuna Awards, according to Bhatia.
Indian shooters bound for next year's Tokyo Olympics will resume their training from Wednesday following Sports Authority of India's decision to open the Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi, which was closed since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. SAI said the full-intensity training of Indian shooters will start in a phased manner.
Ace shooter Abhinav Bindra, who has created a flutter by threatining to quit the sport, on Saturday, urged the administrators to let him follow his own training module which has helped him become an Olympic champion.
In awe of the sensational Saurabh Chaudhary, former World championship silver-medallist shooter Jitu Rai feels the reticent youngster has it in him to humble one of the sport's all-time greats, South Korean Jin Jong-Oh, at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Young Apurvi Chandela wants to be at the 'top of her game' as she aims for a maiden Olympic appearance at next year's Rio Games by fulfilling the stringent selection criteria that the National Rifles Association of India (NRAI) has set for the Indian shooters.
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) is in news for wrong reasons again as Top Gun Sports is alleging it of not supporting the organisation for a competition sponsored by a world renowned gun company.
Swine flu scare in Pune on Monday forced the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) to wind up its month-long training camp which was scheduled to get over on August 25. India's top shooters including Gagan Narang and Anjali Bhagwat were among the 100 participants in the camp at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune to prepare for next year's Commonwealth Games.
Last year, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Raninder Singh, wanted the Indian government to boycott the 2022 Commonwealth Games if shooting was dropped from the programme.
One of India's strongest Olympic medal hopes, ace shooter Manu Bhaker feels preparations 'cannot get better' than the ongoing training-cum-competition tour of Croatia as she works on her consistency ahead of the Tokyo Games.
I have designed an international level shooting range at home. I have named it 'Mission Olympic' and have written on them Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024'
Unsparing on the under-performing shooters but equally scathing on coaches and the national federation, the Abhinav Bindra-led National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) review committee hardly minced words as it chastised the Rio Olympics flop show while recommending a systematic overhaul.
National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) President Raninder Singh took upon himself the blame for the shooters' dismal outing at the Rio Olympics, saying it was a mistake on his part to allow the athletes to train with personal coaches.
While a billion hearts would pray for all the participants to do well, all eyes would be set on the duo of Deepika Kumari/Atanu Das, the four shooters and Mirabai Chanu to open India's medals count.
Postponement of shooting tournaments, cancellation of trials and training camps hardly matter at this point to one of India's biggest young achievers in sport, Manu Bhaker, who is hoping to see the world win the battle against the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic has cast serious doubts over the Tokyo Olympic Games but the 18-year-old, a medal prospect at the quadrennial extravaganza, is currently not thinking about things that are beyond her control.
Pakistani shooters were not allowed to participate in the ISSF event in Delhi.
The novel coronavirus outbreak has prompted India to withdraw from next month's shooting World Cup in Cyprus, the National Rifles Association of India (NRAI) revealed on Friday.
The hospitality and tourism sector is among the worst hit because of the pandemic, and is unlikely to recover any time soon as people continue to be cautious of going out in a crowded places.
The teenager could be the youngest ever to win senior World Cup gold medals for India though the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) could not confirm.
The Walther rifle imported by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who retired from international cricket on Saturday, is the same model which another champion sportsperson, Abhinav Bindra, had used to win a historic individual gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.
Gagan Narang has been dubbed the 'powerhouse' of Indian shooting by the Nation Rifle Association of India.
Rifle shooter Ravi Kumar is the second athlete after boxer Sumit Sangwan whose dope test results have come positive on Tuesday. Ravi accepted the results and is expecting the punishment, to be meted out by NADA, in a few days' time.
The Birmingham Organising Committee has decided to exclude shooting from the 2022 Games, citing logistical issues.
India's shooting federation chief wants the country to boycott the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in the wake of organisers' decision to drop the discipline from the programme in 2022.
Manu won the women's 10m Air Pistol on day three of competition while Saurabh bagged a team gold in the men's event.
Sheikh, who is very optimistic of the industry sailing though this tough phase, thanked Mohit Arora, the owner of Supertech, who has been sponsoring him since 2017.
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.
Cricket was the first to hit the restart button in Indian sports with the IPL, albeit on foreign shores of UAE, in a strict bio-secure bubble.
A dominant India claimed both the gold medals on offer by some distance in the men's and women's 10m air pistol team events on the third competition day of the ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun stage, in New Delhi, on Sunday.
'You can never break performance into black and white, there will always be grey and that's the nature of sport' 'My interest just lies in seeing how we can do better'
Moudgil finished second on the podium behind Korean Hana Im (251.1) and ahead of bronze-medallist Eunhea Jung (228.0), another Korean.
Athens Olympics silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Ronjan Sodhi will spearhead Indian challenge at the ISSF Shotgun World Cups in Mexico and United Arab Emirates in March and April.