Coimbatore: Four sharpshooters from the city bagged three gold medals and four bronze medals at the recently held X South Zone All India Shooting Championship in Telangana, making the Coimbatore Rifle Club shine along the shooting clubs in Chennai and Andhra Pradesh.
N Nivetha and N Keerthana, who participated in the championship’s trap and skeet events, won two bronze medals and a gold medal. While Nivetha, who finished her under-graduation recently, won a gold medal in the individual ISSF trap event, Keerthana won two bronze medals under the Individual skeet junior category and individual skeet category.
“I had never competed with girls from Hyderabad. Girls from Hyderabad and Chennai with more exposure and probably better coaching, gave us a tough competition. But the competition has given us more confidence,” said Keerthana. “We are now inspired to train harder, learn their training methodologies and practice based on our competition.”
Boys from the city also refused to be left behind. KS Senthil Kumar and B Ramesh Kumar won two bronze medals and gold medals. While Senthil Kumar won a bronze in the individual trap men and another bronze in the team men’s event, Ramesh Kumar won a gold in the double trap team event and an individual trap event in the NR category (or yet to qualify for nationals category).
Forty-one-year-old Ramesh, who had been training in the Coimbatore Rifle Club for the last 10 years, said boys from smaller towns in Tamil Nadu shined at the event. “In my events, the silver and bronze medals were also bagged by boys from Pudukottai. Now we know how we can practice focusing on beating our competition.”