Turning homes into ranges, shooters gear up for international online championship

Some of the world's elite shooters will transform their living rooms into competition ranges on April 15 for a first-of-its-kind international online championship, the coronavirus lockdown triggering another out of the box thinking.

An electronic target setup, beside a mobile phone with internet connection, is all they require to shoot in the championship.

From India, the event has attracted big names such as Manu Bhaker, Sanjeev Rajput and Divyansh Singh Panwar, whose Tokyo Olympics dreams have been put on hold for a year after the Games' postponement last month due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

An initiative of former India marksman Shimon Sharif, the championship, which will be live streamed on the internet, will see about 50 shooters, including double gold medallist at the 2019 World Cup in Delhi Veronika Major (Hungary), Nicolas Fraga Corredoira (Spain), Emila Faulkner, Isobel Mactaggart and Lucy Evans (all Scotland), among others.

To make it more interesting, there will be live commentary by Olympian Joydeep Karmakar.

This comes after the unprecedented global health crisis forced the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) to cancel all their tournaments this year, including the World Cups.

"This competition is an effort to keep our sport alive even in these tough times," Sharif, who run the indianshooting.com portal, told PTI.

"This one is only for the elite shooters but later we will organise competitions which will be open to all once every quarter with a prize money."