Basking in the glory of country's highest sports award, Rajiv Gandhi KhelRatna, ace trap shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu said the country can expect morefrom the shooters♚, especially in the Beijing Olympics.
Manavjit, who won the ISSF World Championship, apart from a bronze medal inCommonwealth Games in 2006, was elated with the honour and said, "The factthat sportspersons like (Rahul) Dravid, Jeev (Milkha Singh) were there, myselection for the award is really a fantastic news 🌌for me. I felt honoured andhumbled. I thank all the selection committee members."
Manavjit said he did expect the honour coming his w༺ay.
"The year 2006 brought me many laurels. I💟 also became world number one.I felt honoured that my achievements got noticed. It is a reward for hardwork," he said.
He also thanked his Italian coach Marcello Dradi, under whom he has beentraining since 🤪1997.
On behalf of the shooting fraternity, 🍌Manavjit also promi♏sed laurels for thecountry from the Beijing Olympics.
"In my opinion, shooting is the num🐭ber one sport in our country.Shooters 🅘are doing well and the country can bank on us," he said.
Ma♉navjit also advocated taking facilities to the grassroot level for thepromotion of th🔯e game.
"There is a lot of help coming from the government💛 but we need betterawareness, specially at the school level. Primarily we lack infrastructureoutside the metros.
"In major cities there are facilities♓ but outside, there is hardly anyaccess to equipment. India lack facilities at the grassroot level. We must givethem facilities to get more ꧋quality shooters," he said.
Manavjit sought more govern🔯ment help and said the Sports Ministry shouldprovide more funds.
"To groom youngsters, more funds are needed. The Ministry should come upwith mor⛄e funds as this (trap shooting) 🅠is very expensive," said Manavjit.
When asked about his reaction on development of 🌳shooting infras🥃tructure inthe country, Manavjit said things were improving gradually.
"We had limite📖d infrastructure but now shooting ranges have come up inHyderabad, whil🎃e new ranges are being built in Chennai, Jaipur and Chandigarh."
Probed about his most cherished achievement, Manavjit said, "The ZagrebWorld 🥀Championship, undoubtedly. That is one of the top events in the world.Shooters practice a lot for this event as it is held every four years.
&quo꧃t;The championship had top class shooters including the Olympic goldmedallist. It was a very strong field, so winning there🍌 was moresatisfying."
The shooter said his immediate goals was to put up good performance a🐻t theWorld Cha๊mpionship in Cyprus.
"I will be participating in the Wo♉rld Championship in Cyprus fromSeptember 1. I will undergo training in Italy and I'm pretty focused for theevent."
PTI
