Indian juniors excel at the 7th International Junior Shotgun Cup in Finland

New Delhi, June 8, 2015: The Indian juniors returned home with a rich haul of medals at the just concluded 7th International Junior Shotgun Cup in Orimattila, Finland. With a total of two Gold, one Silver and one Bronze Medal the Indian Juniors have proved that the shotgun bench strength is in good hands and the likes of senior pros like Manavjeet Sandhu and Mansher Singh are set to get a run for their money, come Rio 2016.  Anantjeet Naruka featured as the star performer from the Indian squad as the young shooter returned with an individual Gold Medal and team Gold Medal in the Junior Men’s Skeet category.

Anantjeet walked away with the Gold Medal in the Skeet Junior Men category shooting a total of 110 & 12. He along with Angadvir Bajwa & Arjun Mann won the Gold medal in the Skeet Team Junior Men category shooting a score of 110, 119 & 102 respectively.  Angadvir Bajwa returned with a Bronze medal in the Skeet Junior Men category shooting a total of 119 & 13 respectively.  The trio of Akash Saharan, Kismat Chopra and Lakshay with scores of 107, 101 & 99 respectively returned with a Silver medal in the Junior Men’s Trap event. Amongst the women, the most notable performance came from Kirti Gupta who finished sixth in the Trap Junior Women event, after qualifying for the finals with a score of 53/75.

Mr. Raninder Singh, President, NRAI congratulated the youngsters on the results and said, “ It is definitely a sterling performance from the Junior athletes, who set themselves up as worthy successors to the seniors for the next generation of Indian shooters. However I would also like to credit this achievement largely to the unflinching support given by DG SAI and his team who have fully endorsed the aggressive junior development programme of the National Rifle Association of India.”

This event augurs well for team India who will sport a strong bench of the shotgun squad with the Rio Olympics in 2016 less than a year away. India still awaits a medal in the shotgun discipline at the Olympic level, post Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore’s Silver medal in the Men’s Double Trap event in the 2004 Athens Olympics.