Amid the Pandemic, the Paralympic Movement in the country continued to grow as the 1st Zonal Para Shooting Championship 2021 was inaugurated at the CRPF Shooting Range in Kandarpur, Gurugram.
The Championship, currently underway from February 23 to February 27, 2021, is being felicitated by the CRPF who has provided the shooting range and infrastructure at the CRPF Campus, Gurugram.
A total of 87 participants from 18 states from all four Zones (East, West, North and South) are participating in this competition with a medical classification of 73 new para shooters conducted.
Over the years, the Kandarpur shooting range has become quite popular among shooting enthusiasts. The range, which is very clean and well maintained, has a world-class shooting facility with targets between 300 yards to 1,000 yards. Besides National Championships, the range has hosted the shooting competition during the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Additional Director General CRPF Academy, Shri K.S. Bhandari inaugurated the 2021 championship while the Paralympic Committee of India organised the event led by National Coach and Chairperson Shooting STC (PCI) J.P. Nautiyal.
Shri A.V. Chauhan, IG CRPF Academy and Shri Sunil Joon, DIGP Group Centre CRPF Gurugram were also present during the inauguration event.
During his inauguration speech, Shri Bhandari praised the spirit of every para sportsperson and emphasised that the “human spirit is one of ability, perseverance and courage that no disability can steal away”.
Said Mr. J.P. Nautiyal: “We are very happy to hold our first Zonal Championships. This will be an important event in terms of finding new talents and building a bench strength. We are also very thankful to the CRPF for hosting such a well-organised competition, and providing their CRPF sports persons as volunteers for the event. Without their support, this event wouldn’t have been a success.”
“The attraction of the championship is 14 junior shooters who are as young as 12 years, which is very encouraging for para shooters and the sport in India,” Mr Nautiyal added.
PCI administrator Rahul Swami, who also graced the inauguration, added: “It’s great to see the enthusiasm and interest of the athletes to come out and participate. India is already doing very well in Para Shooting and this Championship is the first step towards getting National Champions. We are very thankful to the CRPF for their continuous support.”
The CRPF has been supporting the country’s Paralympic Movement for many years now. Recently, a first of its kind National Centre for Excellence for Paralympic Sports –the National Centre for Divyang Empowerment (NCDE) – was inaugurated by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Hyderabad.