Outstanding marksmen should join army

Jalandhar, Apr 17 (UNI) Reiterating its resolve to win Olympic Medals, the Army Marksmanship unit made an open offer to outstanding shooters to join the army and avail its training, coaching and other facilities to accomplish the cherished aim at the Beijing Olympics.

Talking to reporters here today Col I J Peoples, Commanding Officer, Army Marksmanship unit, Infantry School, Mhow said his unit is a cradle for sports shooting and under Rs 60 crore Mission Olympic Project the unit had been making sincere efforts to achieve its aim of an Olympic gold medal in shooting at the Beijing Olympics.

Col Peoples said the army is providing all facilities, including training, coaching, weapons and ammunition to its shooters and is also ready to extend the same facilities to other outstanding shooters of the country if they join the army.

He said one star shooter in shotgun event Seema Tomar had already availed the army's offer and had joined the army.

Col Peoples said the army could also extend the offer to other outstanding shooters after reveiwing their performance at the just concluded 4th Sardar Sajjan Singh Sethi Memorial Masters' Shooting Championship here.

Col People was in the city with the Army Shooting team which participated in the championship and subsequent selection trials for the shooting World Cup's and other international tournaments.

He commended the performance of his unit's shooters at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games and said looking at the basis of outstanding perfomance by Subedar Pemba Tamang and Havildar Vijay Kumar, the army was hopeful of sending at least four shooters to Beijing Olympics.

He said he expected Athens Olympic silver medalist Lt Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Subedar Pemba Tamang and Havildar Vijay Kumar to secure quota places for Beijing Olympics. In addition, pistol shooter Major Saroja Kumari and shotgun shooter Seema Tomar are also Olympic probables.

UNI SS HS PM DS1355