NRAI announces plans for 75th anniversary celebrations

The NRAI has announced year-long plans to mark its 75th anniversary, including introducing 7.5 lakh students to shooting and honouring top athletes, while highlighting India’s strong Olympic record in the sport

Hyderabad: The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), the governing body for the Olympic sport of shooting in the country, has unveiled extensive plans for its 75th anniversary celebrations on its foundation day.

The celebrations began at the hallowed Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range (DKSSR) Finals Hall in Delhi with a ceremonial cake-cutting in the presence of Mr Pawankumar Singh, Secretary General, NRAI, Mr Rajiv Bhatia, Secretary, NRAI, Jitu Rai, Khel Ratna awardee, Mansher Singh, Arjuna awardee and Chief Shotgun Coach of Team India, and double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker, besides shooters, coaches and support staff of the national shooting squad and the National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) for shooting sports.

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Providing details of the celebrations planned in the coming days, Mr Pawan Kumar Singh said, “We have year-long celebrations planned. To begin with, we have set a target of introducing 7.5 lakh (7,50,000) new school students to shooting, where we will either visit their schools or call them to the nearest range and make them shoot 10 shots each. We will take the help of the government, the Ministry of Sports as well as all the shooting academies and even local shooting clubs across the cities and districts of the country in order to achieve this goal.”

“This will help unearth new natural talent. Apart from this, we plan to felicitate all the Arjuna, Khel Ratna, Dronacharya awardees and Olympic medallists in shooting during the National Championships, as well as the state awardees during the State Championships. Finally, during the ISSF World Cup Olympic quota event next year in Delhi, we plan to host an exhibition match between our Olympic medallists past and present,” he said.

Shooting is one of India’s most successful Olympic sports with a tally of one gold, two silver and four bronze medals won over the years. Abhinav Bindra also won India’s first individual Olympic gold at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, winning the men’s 10m air rifle event. In the most recent Paris 2024 Olympics, half of India’s six medals came from shooting, with Manu Bhaker returning with two bronze medals.