Raiza Dhillon: From being awed by guns of her grandfathers to earning India’s first women’s skeet shooting quota

“While Raiza has not seen my grandfather Jagirdar Gurinder Singh Dhillon, she grew up seeing pictures of the 20 guns owned by him and the six shot guns of my father. All she wanted was to hold a real gun when she grew up; to win India’s first women’s skeet quota means a lot to her as well the whole family,” the father says.

When her family shifted base to Panchkula, her mother Gul Dhillon, a sarpanch of the village in Karnal, coaxed her into playing tennis, swimming and learning dances like Bharatnatyam and Kathak.

Raiza Dhillon (file pic) it is who wins India’s 18th @Paris2024 quota place, with a 🥈 performance in women’s skeet at the #AsiaOlympicQualification #Shotgun in Kuwait. Congratulations to the teenager💥🔥👏🇮🇳#IndianShooting pic.twitter.com/RgsfUDwOXn

— NRAI (@OfficialNRAI) January 20, 2024

When she turned 12, Raiza chose shooting but she had a special demand. Her mother Gul Dhillon explains. “Initially, we got Raiza to compete in the 10m Air Rifle; she also attended camps at Gagan Narang Shooting Academy in Pune. But then she wanted to shoot with the big guns. As a mother, I was concerned about her getting hurt from the gun recoil but she did not seem worried at all. Her right cheek still has many black marks due to the placement of the shotgun. Sometimes my father would wonder why to put a girl in such a sport! But then that’s what Raiza loves and we have never stopped her,” says the mother.

In 2018, the Haryana youngster picked up skeet shooting with the coach Amrinder Singh Cheema, a close friend of her father. A bronze in the senior skeet event in 2021 nationals followed. Last year, she became the junior national champion and also won a silver medal in ISSF Junior World Champions in Changwon Korea. More medals came her way; a silver from the Asian Junior Championship in Changwon and another silver at the nationals in Goa.

Raiza Dhillon with her father after winning the silver medal and Paris Olympics quota for India.

“Unlike kids of her age, Raiza was clear about competing in skeet from day one. Initially, I made her shoot 50 targets per day and increased to 250-300. We trained at Patiala and in my village near Ludhiana; she would travel daily from Panchkula with her father or mother to train. There were days when temperatures would be close to 45-47 degrees in summers and she would ask me to hold an umbrella and shoot,” says coach Amrinder Singh Cheema, who himself has competed in multiple ISSF World Cups.

On Saturday, Raiza qualified for the six-shooter final at the sixth place; fellow shooters Ganemat Sekhon and Maheshwari Chauhan also made it to the final. Raiza did not miss single target from her 29 targets. When Thailand’s Sutiya Jiewchaloemmit and Reem Al Aharshani exited, India were assured of a quota. Jinmei Gao bagged the second quota place on offer for China. Raiza won the silver medal and Gao took the gold while Chauhan and Sekhon finished third and fourth respectively.

“For the last two months, Raiza had shifted to my village and we worked on her getting an early advantage. Such scenarios also help when a shooter qualifies with a lower bib for the final and it worked for her in the final. We need to work upon her stock apart from a couple of minor things for the Olympic trials to seal her place for Paris,” says Cheema.

Raiza Dhillon with her father during a visit to a gun factory in Cyprus.

25-year-old Naruka, who belongs to the erstwhile royal house of Uniara in Tonk District of Rajasthan, ensured India has a Paris quota place in each shooting event and a possibility of the Indian mixed skeet team as he won the silver medal. Naruka, who had become the first Indian shooter to win a skeet medal in last year’s Asian Games with a silver medal, shot 56 targets as compared to 57 from the gold medal winner Yuan Meng Lee of Chinese Taipei.