CHENNAI: How popular is shooting as a sport in Chennai? When you Google ‘Chennai shooting’, there are five auto-complete suggestions. Among them is the fifth advice that says — ‘Chennai Shooting Club’, which then redirects to the Chennai Rifle Club. The relevance of this at the moment has been lost to a number of problems. “We definitely have good shooters in Chennai. Prithviraj Thondaiman is one example. But, one aspect that really needs some looking into is sponsorship,” explained TN Shooting Association secretary R Ravi Krishnan.
“Since we don’t produce good sporting ammunition indigenously, we have to rely on imported munitions. Shooters who have been approved by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) for subsidies, good brands like Healy, RC and Olympia can cost up to `22 per round. The same for the not-so-lucky ones — namely the majority — `45 per round,” he elaborated
Even with these massive figures hovering over their heads, quite a few youngsters— courtesy the spurts of awareness for shooting brought about by the likes of Abhinav Bindra and Jitu Rai during the Rio Olympics— are intent on taking up the sport. But, according to Krishnan, parents’ interest wane after a few months and that’s a big impediment.
“This reminds me of the time when I used to conduct ham-radio classes a long time ago. The first day had 100 children. The third saw the attendance dip to 20. It’s quite the same here,” he explained.
But Krishnan also insists that the Chennai Rifle Club is doing its’ best to develop the sport at the city level. “From this year, we’re offering student memberships; a reason why Coimbatore and Madurai have churned out more quality shooters compared to Chennai. We also have six acres of land near Red Hills that has been marked for a world-class shooting range. But we need help from the government or some private sponsors; else it will remain a pipe dream,” he averred.