Manavjit to train in Italy for Asiad

Patiala, Aug 15 (UNI) Manavjit Singh Sandhu, the current world champion in the men's trap shooting, is all set for his further training in Italy under his old and trusted mentor Marcelo Dradi, for the 15th Asian games in Doha later in December.

Manavjit told UNI after receiving the state award from Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh at the Independence Day function here today that the hard training which he had got paid him laurels at the recent World Champioshipship in Zagreb (Croatia).

''My fitness and hard training played important role to meet the nerve-wacking challenge. As new rules were applicable, I shot aggressively to reach the top from the sixth position at Zagreb.

That is how I handled the pressure in the best way,'' he said.

Manavjit had won gold in individual men's trap and silver in team championship. He has been in his best form in 2006, the result of dedicated practice schedule . As he said other day ''I have been shooting consistently this season. Due to the continuous hard work for the last 12 years, I was able to recently become the world champion at Zagreb (Croatia) by winning gold in men's individual trap and silver in team event in the World Shooting Championship.'' Manav said all top class shooters had competed in the recently held World championship and at the last Olympics. ''The competition and standard are same at both these global events and as far as technical point of view is concerned, the value of gold in the World Championship or the Olympics is the same.'' He said it was good to see the youngsters taking the sport.

''The recent heart-warming performance by the Indian shooters in the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, the World Cups and the World Championship has generated more interest among the Indian youth,'' he said.

The world has noticed our performance and they acknowledge it.

The credit also goes to the Government of India and also the Punjab for giving enough support to shooter community. The government is making desired investment and money from corporate industrial houses have also started noticing shooting, he added.

''But still ammunition, weapons and other related articles are very costly. All shooters cannot afford to import. I hope big groups would adopt shooting and they will get returns also,'' the marksman said.

Manavjit opined that new talent has been coming up well. He always felt grateful to his father Gurbir Singh, a former international shooter, and ''his guide on all fronts''.

UNI XC PS DH KN1823