There is nothing much happier for a father seeing his daughter making the entire nation proud. It was a double swoop for electrician’s daughter, pistol shooter from Bhopal, Chinki Yadav who won the 25m pistol gold medal in the national selection trails and team silver medal in the national shooting championship.
Two other female shooters from Madhya Pradesh also won medals in the 19th Surendra Singh memorial shooting championship in the national capital.
Jabalpur’s rifle shooter Shreya Agarwal and pistol shooter Mahima Agarwal also bagged medals in the championship.
Shreya won the team bronze in the 10m senior rifle category and an individual bronze medal in the 10m rifle junior category. Mahima teaming up with Chinki bagged the silver medal in the senior women 25m pistol category.
During the national selection trial, Chinki shot a score of 32 in the final to win a gold medal while Neeraj Kaur of the BSF shot 30 to settle for silver and Annu Raj Singh of Air India shot 27 for a bronze medal.
Chinki first shot into fame in the year 2017 after winning team bronze medal in the junior world championship. But this year, she is again in the news for making the country proud as she won the gold medal in the national team selection trails including a silver medal in the national championship.
She is a professional shooter of shooting academy which is run by the sports department.
Interestingly, Chinki’s father identified as Mehtab Singh Yadav has been linked with the sports department for the past 23 years. Recalling the day when Chinki joined the shooting academy in 2012, Yadav said she always wanted to join summer camp.
“As my home is inside the stadium Chinki used to see others playing different games. She wanted to join the summer camp. I didn’t know that decision was the making of a star in my family,” she added.
It was only after joining the academy, Chinki started impressing coaches with her fighting spirit. “She was among few shooters selected after talent hunt for the shooting academy. She later took part in the national championship and won the medal,” said Yadav.
Chinki who has always taken this sport with so much interest has been a regular member of the Indian shooting squad in the junior category for the past 4 years. This goes to show that she is determined enough to achieve and hungry for more medals. In fact, mostly, she spends time at the shooting academy.
“Most of her time is spent at the shooting academy. She is a day-boarder,” added Yadav. Chinki’s inspiring performance encouraged Yadav to admit his younger son in the academy. “He was admitted last year in the academy, and now is a promising shooter of the academy,” said Yadav.
Appreciating sports department, Yadav couldn’t have asked for better support from the sports department and that she and her family owe a lot to them.
“Shooting is such a costly game that it was not possible for me to bear the expenses of buying guns and ammunition from my pocket. My family owes a lot to the sports department.” Director sports S L Thaosen said Chinki has the potential to achieve even higher goals.
(Originally Published In The Times Of India)