Mhow (Madhya Pradesh): Minister for sports and youth welfare Yashodhara Raje Scindia inaugurated Paralympic shooting competitions at AMU in Mhow on Sunday. Paralympic Committee of India president Dr Deepa Malik presided over the programmes. Other dignitaries present on the occasion included Col Amar Singh, the CO of AMU. The events are being held at the shooting ranges of Mhow Army Marksmanship Unit.
As many as 119 para shooters are taking part in the zonal competitions and nearly 100 are taking part in the selection trials for national championship. Nine-year-old Saurabhi Sharma is the youngest shooter participating in the event, while Nagendra, a shooter from Karnataka is the oldest. The events, - 10-meter air pistol and rifle, 25-meter sports pistol, 50-meter rifle with prone and 3 positions - will continue till December 16. Trap shooting events are also being organized in these competitions.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Scindia invited the Paralympics organisers to hold the events at the world class Bhopal shooting range. The minister said that usually she doesn’t go anywhere on Sundays as she gets only a day but she couldn’t miss this Paralympic event as she wanted to be a part of it and so she decided to come to Mhow to see the achievers and motivate them.
Malik thanked AMU and Madhya Pradesh government for hosting such events. Col Amar Singh presented the mementos to the guests and Jaiprakash Nautiyal proposed the vote of thanks.
The youngest shooter Saurabhi Sharma of Jaipur said that she is a student of class 4 and had started participating in the 10-meter pistol event two years back. She had won a gold medal in her category.
