Vivek High student Ganimat shoots bronze

Gagan K Teja

Tribune News Service

Patiala, October 19

Two upcoming shotgun shooters from the region grabbed bronze medals while India No. 2 Amrinder Cheema won a gold medal at the Jaipur Grand Prix that concluded recently.

While the experienced Cheema bagged the gold in the senior men’s skeet category, Ganimat Sekhon (15) and Indereshwer Singh Sekhon (18) bagged a bronze each in the junior women’s and men’s categories, respectively.

Facing strong competition from PP Guron, who is a three-time national champion and former National Games gold medallist, and young Indian star Anant Naruka, Cheema managed to hold his nerve to emerge victorious.

There was tight shoot-off between World Cup bronze medallist Anant Naruka and Cheema from which the latter emerged victorious.

Sekhon, a student of Vivek High School (Chandigarh), shot fearlessly to manage the bronze medal.

Sekhon of SD College (Chandigarh) won a bronze after he failed to make it to the gold-medal match.

Despite the medal high, the skeet shooters raised an important issue about the inadequate training infrastructure in Chandigarh. They have been training at New Moti Bagh shooting range in Patiala, which has been very time-consuming. It takes about three hours for the round trip between Chandigarh and Patiala and time management is a major issue, considering two of them are students. 

Cheema said that it would be convenient if there was a range in Chandigarh as many shooters were settled in and around Chandigarh. He said that most of the youngsters found it extremely difficult to find the time for training.

Guron, a former Punjab shooter who now represents Chhattisgarh, is a resident of Mohali and trains in Patiala. He said that a skeet range in Chandigarh would certainly attract more shooters and help in getting better results.