The transition of the use of the gun from a weapon of warfare and self-defence to
that of an instrument of sport took place around the 1860s in Britain. Shooting,
thereafter, rapidly gained in popularity as a sport and was included in the Olympic Games
in 1896. It became a part of the Asian Games agenda from the 1954 Manila Asiad.
The National Rifle Association of India is the parent body for the promotion of the sport
in the country and the first national championship was held in Delhi from 9 to 16 November
1952.
The late Maharaja Karni Singh, Randhir Singh, Soma Dutta, Jaspal Rana and Ashok Pandit are
among some of the Indians to have attained international acclaim. The late Maharaja Karni
Singh became the first ever Indian to win an Asian Games medal when he claimed the silver
in the clay pigeon (trap) event in the 1974 Teheran Asian Games. Randhir Singh improved
upon this by winning a gold medal in the 1978 Bangkok Asiad. The late Maharaja Karni Singh
had earlier won a gold medal in the individual trap event at the 1971 Asian championships
at Seoul. He won a silver in the 1975 Asian championships at Kuala Lumpur.
While Soma Dutta became the first Indian woman to win an Asiad medal, when she took the
silver in the individual small bore three-position event at 1986 Seoul Asiad (she also won
a bronze in the air rifle 10 metres event), Ashok Pandit claimed the gold medal in the
1990 Commonwealth Games air rifle event at Auckland.
To Randhir Singh goes the distinction of having represented India for nearly four decades
and participating in six successive Olympics since the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
|