Ludh young gun stuns with 12-medal triumph

LUDHIANA: Seventeen-year-old shooting prodigy Anhad Jawanda had a landmark moment at the 60th National Shooting Championship in Pune, notching up a 12-medal haul - four individual and eight as part of team events - for Punjab.
Anhad participated in 25m centre fire, 25m rapid fire, 25m standard pistol and 25m sports pistol events.
In the individual 25m centre fire event, Janwada won one gold medal (586 points) and one silver medal (585 points) in open civilian category and open individual category, respectively.His third medal, another silver, came with 578 points in the 25m sports pistol event under open individual category. Janwanda added his fourth individual medal in the form of another silver in the 25m rapid fire event.
In the team events, in 25m rapid fire he won two silver medals with the senior civilian team and senior open team. In 25m standard pistol event, he clinched two gold medals as part of the senior civilian and junior civilian teams, besides a silver medal with junior open team.
His tally swelled to 12 medals with the open team bronze in 25m sports pistol and another gold and a silver in 25m centre fire event.
Talking to TOI, Jawanda said, "First time I have won so many medals in one championship. It is a great feeling as winning medals always motivates me."
Inderjit Singh Jawanda, Anhad's proud father and a former national-level shooter, said, "Earlier in the Junior World Cup, he created a new national record with 586 point in 25m sports pistol, which was previously held by Olympian Vijay Kumar with 583 points. I am proud of him." Anhad was in Class VIII when he started training at the SCD Government College, which has Ludhiana's only shooting range. "There was only 10m shooting range at SCD Government College but I wanted him to be in 25m event, so I started taking him to Narangwal shooting range for practice. He used to wake up at 4 am in the morning to reach the shooting range by 6 am and then to school by 8 am," his father said.
Now Anhad will be preparing for the trials of senior Indian team that will participate in upcoming ISSF World Cup Rifle Pistol to be held in Germany in May 2017. Trials will be organized at Pune in January and selected shooters will attend the national camp in Delhi. According to Anhad's father, shooting is an expensive game and not all can afford it, with a single day of practice costing Rs 1500-2000.