After failing to make a mark in trap event,Army shooter Peoples stuck to skeet; now eyes glory at the Commonwealth Games Most children fall asleep to bedtime stories but as a child Alan Peoples drifted off dreaming of his father and grandfathers hunting exploits. One story that stuck in his young mind was of his grandfather picking off birds on the wing while his compatriots waited for them to settle down. Now one of Indias hopes in the skeet shooting category,24-year-old Lt. Allan Daniel Peoples too shoots birds,though he targets the inanimate clay pigeon variety. An army kid like his father before him,Peoples started shooting in Class 11 when his father Col. Ivor Peoples was posted at Delhi. My father would shoot at the Karni Singh range on weekends and take me along. One day he decided to give me five shots and I managed to hit one out of five. The tremendous recoil though is something I still remember,but thankfully my father had placed some ammunition boxes behind me so I didnt fall over, says Peoples recalling his wonder years. After his first experience,Peoples almost entirely forgot that he was once a football fan. I would look forward to the weekends when I could shoot once again at Karni Singh and even after my father was posted once again,I continued with shooting. While Peoples proved to be a natural,he started his career in skeet more by accident than by design. At his first competition,he had entered in all categories trap,double and skeet and was confident about getting into the finals in trap but not in skeet. However he missed most of his targets in trap but got into the finals and then won the skeet. That was just the way it went. Those days I would practice maybe a few days before competitions so it could have gone either way. I guess I was lucky,there were not too many big names in skeet, he muses. Like many young shooters,Peoples was also influenced by Colonel Rajyavardhan Rathores 2004 Olympic silver. However for him,the connect was a much closer one. His father Ivor Peoples was Rathores Commanding Officer when Rathore was still a major undergoing training at the Army Marksmanship Unit at Mhow. For me he was always Major Rathore. I never saw him as a celebrity. Perhaps it helped that while I always respected him,I was never overawed by him, recalls Peoples. 2004 was also the year when Peoples first broke onto the shooting scene. He won his first National title while still competing as a junior. However,even at this point he was practicing seriously only a few days prior to the event. It was only after Peoples entered the I.M.A in Dehradun in 2006 that he started taking shooting seriously. A newly commissioned Lieutenant,Peoples still clicks his heels when speaking to a higher ranked officer. While he credits the army for encouraging his shooting career as part of the Armys Mission Olympic Programme,he admits the shock of becoming an officer with all the responsibilities on offer affected his shooting. This year his form dipped as well. He failed to qualify for a single World Cup and made the CWG grade only last month after an excellent showing at the shotgun trials in August. While shooting,one needs to be completely relaxed. That is the key. Earlier because of all the pressure I felt as a new officer,I was struggling, he says,before adding right now Im as relaxed as possible. The only thing I dream of right now is a Commonwealth medal.
