Taking a leaf out of the Indian Premier League and with an aim to broad-base shooting in the country, Ronjan Sodhi and Manavjit Sandhu are organising the first-ever Indian Shotgun Open on the lines of the top T20 cricket event, starting here from tomorrow.
The tournament seeks to encourage youngsters to compete shoulder to shoulder with the top guns while giving them a chance to win big prizes with the help of a unique Handicap System.
Via this method, a less experienced shooter will be given an advantage in order to make it possible for him to arrive at par with the experienced shooters.
The Sports Promotion Foundation, headed by Sodhi and Manavjit along with Amit Bhalla, Vice President, Manav Rachna International University, today announced the first-ever edition of the event to be held at the Karni Singh Ranges till Friday.
"We are extremely happy that an event of this scale is being organised in India to promote shooting in the country. It is a great step and we are sure that the Indian Shotgun Open will pave the way for enhancing awareness about shooting and a lot more youngsters would take up the sport," NRAI President Raninder Singh said.
"It is a reaffirmation of NRAI's commitment to keep the shooters involved in shooting events. This also opens up the game for the not-so-renowned shooters to come and compete with the best. There is a long list of prize winners, the top-30 will be awarded prizes. This event is a preliminary for the World Cups, Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games," he added.
Raninder said the NRAI is not fielding a team for China World Cup because of clash of dates with the CWG which is a "priority". The tournament is being held under the patronage of NRAI.
"It gives shooters an opportunity to be competitive without tremendous amount of tension. It is important that everybody at the junior level taste success," Manavjit said.
"We wanted this to be a fun, carnival kind of a tournament," added Sodhi.
Subsequently, the tournament will be an annual affair and the organisers hope to scale it up year-on-year, with increased prize money and participation from ace foreign shooters as well, to make it a marquee event in the international shooting calendar.
