Indore. Guns have been a fascination for Indian shooter Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar (21), who won gold in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions event at the ISSF Shooting World Cup in Changwon, South Korea. This boy from a farming family never missed fulfilling his hobby of bursting balloons with a pellet gun in the village fair. His father Virbahadur Singh Tomar (59), who was proud of Aishwarya’s golden success in the World Cup, shared these memories related to his son on Sunday.
Aishwarya, who represented India in the Tokyo Olympics, is a resident of Ratanpur village with a population of just 800 in Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh. He is lovingly called ‘Prince’ at home. Tomar, who does farming in the village, located about 150 km from Indore, said, ‘Whenever Prince (Aishwarya) used to go to the village fair in his childhood, he was most interested in bursting balloons with a pellet gun. He used to take great pleasure in shooting balloons with this gun.
Tomar told that he belongs to the Rajput community and licensed weapons like rifles and guns are traditionally kept in his family, so Aishwarya had seen these weapons since childhood. He told that Aishwarya made up her mind to learn the tricks of shooting when her nephew Navdeep Singh Rathore was taking training at the state government’s shooting academy in Bhopal.
Tomar told, ‘Anyway, Prince’s (Aishwarya) mind was less interested in studies. That’s why he was sent to Bhopal’s Shooting Academy at the age of 14 but he could not be selected for training in the first attempt.
He told that Aishwarya, passionate about shooting, was again sent to Bhopal’s academy the next year and was selected for training at the age of 15. Tomar told that after this selection, his son did not look back and he is climbing the stairs of success from state to world level.
Aishwarya topped the podium after beating Jalan Peckler of Hungary 16-12 in the 50m 3 positions event of the ISSF Shooting World Cup in Changwon on July 16 (Saturday). Jalan Peckler has been the 2018 Youth Olympic champion. By the way, this is Aishwarya’s second gold medal in the Shooting World Cup. He won the first medal in this event last year in the capital Delhi.
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Tags: Indian Shooter, issf world cup, Shooting, Shooting World Cup, sports news
FIRST PUBLISHED : July 17, 2022, 16:07 IST