India’s best junior shooters reflecting pan-India growth

Rohit Kanyan was inspired after watching Neeraj Chopra win a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. He immediately got out of his house and looked for a sports academy nearby. There happened to be a shooting academy in Karnal, so he chose to hold the air rifle instead of a javelin.

- Avishek Roy

Deependra Shekhawat from Sikar in Rajasthan initially chose swimming at school but switched to shooting, considering the bright future in the sport. He now trains at the Jagatpura shooting range in Jaipur.

Anushka Thokur's father thought his daughter could take good aim after seeing bursting balloons with an air gun. He found a range for her in Bengaluru and then sent her to Gagan Narang’s Gun For Glory academy in Chennai. She is now being guided by one of India’s finest rifle 3P shooters and Olympian Sanjeev Rajput at the national camp.

On Thursday, all of these young talents were on the podium at the ISSF Junior Shooting World Cup at the Karni Singh range here in the prone event.