Women take aim at a training camp in Ranchi. Telegraph picture

Ranchi, Dec. 11: Budding shooters of the state are hurt at being denied participation in the GV Malwankar National Shooting Championship that started at Jalandhar on December 7.

Altogether 19 young shooters from five districts of the state had qualified for the national championship. They had been honing their skills for the past several years.

But all of a sudden, they were told that they would not be allowed to participate as the Jharkhand Rifle Association (JRA) is not recognised by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), which incidentally is headed by Digvijay Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand.

“I have been working hard for the past four years with limited resources at my disposal. Last year, I participated in the GV Malwankar National Championship in Agra. But this time, I am not being allowed to participate. I am extremely disappointed,” said Ajay Kumar Nag, who had qualified for the .177 air pistol event.

“We are players and our job is to practise hard and play well. The JRA secretary has been working hard for the last seven or eight years to arrange resources for us, and we have done him proud too by winning medals at different meets such as shooting championships in Bengal. NRAI’s attitude is indeed shocking,” Nag said.

Another shooter, Pratyush Kumar, said: “I have been working on my shooting for the past two-and-a-half years. I participated in All India Inter-University Shooting Championship held in Haryana in December 2007. This year too, I will participate in the event in Dehra Dun. But I was keen to test my skills at the national shooting championship. But that was not to be.”

Kumar added: “It is because of the JRA secretary that we have been able to progress despite the lack of facilities. There was a time when we used bricks to get our positions right and used a rifle of Indian make. The secretary ran from pillar to post to bring a German rifle for us.”