KL varsity student has sights set on air rifle junior world cup gold
VIJAYAWADA: A first-year engineering student of KL Deemed-to-be University has qualified for the 10-metre World Air-Rifle Junior Cup to be held at Suhl in Germany from May 8 to 20. Maddineni Umamahesh (17), recently, participated in the qualifying competition for the World Cup, in which 780 contestants participated. He scored 628 points and won bronze in the juniors category.
In trial-II, Umamahesh won gold medals in the junior and youth categories and set a record with 632.5 points. He was selected for the Indian senior team at the age of 17. Umamahesh has also been selected to represent the State at the under-19 10-metre Air Rifle Peepset at ‘Khelo India’ to be held in Haryana from June 4.
“I started my career with cricket and karate during my childhood, but my father Ramakrishna has an interest in rifle shooting. In 2018, I started training for rifle shooting at N Subrahmanyeswara Rao in Vijayawada and harnessed my shooting skills,” Umamahesh told TNIE. In 2019, Umamahesh set a world record by participating in the rifle event at the youngest age (15 years) at the 63rd National-level Competition held in Bhopal.
“After noticing my shooting skills, representatives from Gagan Narang Academy adopted me to train at their centres in Pune and Chennai. My aim is to win a gold medal and bring laurels to the country at the world championship,” he said.