Rakshit Shastry (30), a shooter from Mysuru has made the city proud by bagging as many as eight medals during the 10th Karnataka State Shooting Competition and Championship - 2022 held in Bengaluru recently.
Shastry bagged three gold, four silver and one bronze medal under various categories in the event organised by the Karnataka State Rifle Association.
He won a gold in 25-metre centre fire pistol, two team gold medals in centre fire pistol and air pistol men, two individual silver medals in 25-metre standard pistol and 50-metre free pistol, team silver in standard pistol and bronze in mixed air pistol and emerged as the champion of the state in air pistol and centre fire pistol.
An M.Tech graduate, Shastry is currently working as an assistant manager at Bosch Automotive Electronics in Bengaluru and is being trained under Santosh B N at Golden Ace Shooting Academy.
Over the last few years, he has won more than 50 medals in the district, state, national and international levels and has been representing Karnataka in nationals since 2016 in a 10-metre air pistol and 50-metre free pistol.
He is also the lone medalist for the state in 26th All India GV Mavalankar Shooting Championship held in 2016. He also won a silver for the India CDRA team in the International Shooting Competition of Hannover held at Germany in 2019.
Expressing happiness, Shastry said: "The championship was not held for the last two years due to the pandemic. I was very enthusiastic this year and participated by spending from my pocket."
"2020 COVID pause was a breakdown for me since no competitions and training there was a lack of direction. During this phase, my coach Santhosh B.N motivated and encouraged me to get back to the sport and I could decide in the direction I had to go. Even then it was difficult to see myself lose in three finals back to back. He has been a great support in building me inside-out in every step and the preparation helped me in getting in the right shape of mind and ability to handle pressure, in time for the State Championship.
I would also thank my team at BOSCH, who have been encouraging me in my pursuit of happiness and these results have given me enough motivation to participate in the south zone competition to be held in Trichy soon and I feel confident in taking part in the national championship to be held in the fag end of the year," he said.