HP teen shooter Zeena breaking glass ceiling

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 20

Himachal Pradesh’s Zeena Khitta is one of the very few shooters from the state to have won the gold in the open nationals. The 18-year-old Rohru girl stunned some of the top names in Indian shooting to bag a rare medal in the 10m air rifle competition, which is also the most competitive shooting event in the country right now.

Zeena pipped West Bengal’s Mehuli Ghosh and world No. 3 Apurvi Chandela by scoring 252.2 in the final. Mehuli (250.5) won the silver while Apurvi (227.6) had to settle for the bronze in the 63rd National Shooting Championship Competitions Rifle/Pistol.

Zeena was fourth in the qualifying, but topped the eight-women final. “To win the gold in such a tough competition is a big achievement,” said Zeena. The chubby teenager took up the game in Class IX at the shooting academy in Aradhana Public School, Rohru, four years ago. “I had to coax her father Prithviraj Khitta, an apple grower, to allow her to take up the sport,” recalled coach Virender Singh Banshtu.

“After she took up the game, she struggled a lot for the first two-three years. Skill and fitness were big challenges for her, but slowly and steadily she overcame all the challenges,” the coach added.

It was only after she won the bronze, her first national medal, at the junior event in Thiruvananthapuram in 2017 that she started peaking. In 2018, Zeena won the gold in the Khelo India School Games and in company of Elavenil Valarivan and Shreya Agrawal beat the Chinese Taipei team to win the 10m air rifle team event at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Sydney. Winning the gold at a senior event is definitely a big high for Zeena, who occasionally trains at the Lakshya Shooting Club in Panvel, Mumbai. This is also for the first time that the Himachal shooter has pipped Mehuli and Apurvi in the open nationals. “It will definitely be a mental boost, but I have to keep doing it on a regular basis,” said Zeena, a BA-I student at DAV College, Sector 10, Chandigarh. “I have Khelo India competition and trials for the national team in January. I am hoping to do well there,” she said.

Surya wins 5 medals

Meanwhile, Surya Pratap Banshtu, another Himachal shooter, emerged junior national champion in the .22 rifle prone event. The Rohru shooter won five medals in different categories and events in the open nationals. He also paired up with Zeena to win the 10m air rifle mixed team silver.