Unveiled,Games shooting range impresses all

“There is nothing lacking in this range. The Beijing Olympics range didn’t even impress me.

“When I first visited it in 2008,I was a little apprehensive. I was in doubt whether it could be completed on time but in just 13 months it is ready and the credit goes to all those who are involved in the venture,” he added. His views were backed by the Commonwealth Shooting Federation chief Graeme Hudson,who returned to the country on the request of the Sports Ministry after being forced to resign as the Sports Manager (shooting) for the 2010 Commonwealth Games by the CWG Organising Committee and the National Rifle Association of India.

“It is a world-class shooting range. I would certainly rank it among the top three in the world if not number one. It has all the state-of-the-art facilities,” Hudson said.

The New Zealand-based shooting expert feels the two-day Commonwealth Shooting Championship from February 17 is the perfect opportunity to test facilities of the range,which was renovated with an investment of Rs 150 crore. “We won’t have a big field in the Commonwealth Championships but it gives us a chance to test the venue. The new range looks excellent and the constructors took the right decision by demolishing the old range,” Hudson said.

Former marksmen and Indian Olympic Association secretary-general Randhir Singh also feels the Commonwealth Championship will give a fair idea about the fine-tuning that the range requires before hosting the October 3-14 mega-event. “The range looks excellent. The facilities that have been set up are good enough to hold the Commonwealth Championship. We still have more than six months in hand to put in place everything,” Randhir said.

Athens Olympics silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore also agreed that even though the range looked wonderful,the shooters will get a feel of the facilities once the national camp begins here from tomorrow. “The range is new and bigger. If you look at the location and the facilities,it is the best in the world. But there will be some problems which can be taken care of in due course,” Rathore said.

“We will get the knowledge of how the facilities work once the camp starts here tomorrow,” the Armyman added.