Two Naga shooters to participate at 59th National Shooting Championship
Dimapur, September 3: The 4th North East Zone Shooting Championship (NEZSC) concluded at the Aries Sports Complex, Bamumpukhuri-I, Dimapur on Saturday.
The chief guest, Richard Zothankima, Assistant Secretary, Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission for Manipur & Mizoram and a former president of Mizoram Rifle Association declared the championship closed to end of the 6-day shooting championship competed among the northeast states to qualify for the National Championship.
During the championship, 162 shooters participated, out of which 50 shooters qualified for the national championship. Along with the rest of northeast qualifiers, two Naga shooters will make waves in the 59th National Shooting Championship that will be held in New Delhi at Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range from December 1 to 15.
Zothankima, in his speech challenged the shooters: “If Abhinav Bindra can win gold. Why not you, why not I?” He urged the participants to help each other for the glory of the Northeast.
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Seen here are participants, not identify receiving their medals during the closing ceremony of the North East Zone Shooting Championship at the Aries Sports Complex, at Bamumpukhuri-I in Dimapur.[/caption]
He said to the shooters “you are the seed, we are the fertilizers” and asked the shooters to make the best use of the equipments.
He also encouraged Nagaland to make the best use of the shooting arena as it comes equipped with all the shooting range, i.e., 50m, 25m, 10m, whereas Mizoram doesn’t have the whole package. He urged the Naga shooters to make the best use of it. Zothankima lauded Manipur for producing many national shooters ever since the time of independence.
A remarkable feature of the first Northeast Shooting Championship in Nagland was the participation of a wheelchair-target-shooter, Aman Ali, (also called as para-shooter) from Assam in 10m Air Pistol.
During the championship, Manipur got the highest tally medal with 36; Assam came second with 31 medals, followed by Meghalaya with 12 medals, Mizoram with 6 medals and Nagaland with 3 medals. Also, as per the conditions of the National rule, five shooters broke northeast records and another two equalled existing Northeast records. For minimum qualifying score, 8 shooters broke new northeast records. The 5th North East Zone championship will be held at Meghalaya.
