Sriyanka Sarangi. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 16: Seventeen-year-old Odia shooter Sriyanka Sarangi has grabbed a silver medal in a team event at the 12th Asian Shooting Championship held in Doha, Qatar on Saturday. This achievement has made her the most successful Odia shooter ever. Inspiring other shooters from the state, she has emerged fifth in the final competition in the women’s junior category.

Performing the best among the three junior women shooters representing India in the international team event for 10m air rifle shooting, Sriyanka helped the Indian contingent stand second in this segment. She scored 394 out of 400 at the championship in Doha.

In the Asian Airgun Championship organised in Kuwait in last October, she had bagged a gold medal in the same team event. A part of the national squad for shooting, she had also took part in the World Shooting Championship, which was held in Munich, Germany in 2010. She had also won a silver and two bronze medals in individual events at the 55th National Shooting championship last November.

Sriyanka, who was born in Sambalpur, has grown up at various places in India because of her father’s army background. “I came to know about her winning the medal from the Internet. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. I had spoken to Sriyanka yesterday. She will leave Doha on January 22. She was elated at this achievement,” said her proud father Colonel Sitansu Charan Sarangi, who is now posted in Assam. Sriyanka’s mother Sudha Sarangi said she was eagerly waiting to welcome her daughter home. “Though she spends most of her time outside Odisha, she misses the state. She aspires to win medals for India and idolises Olympic silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore,” she said.

Sriyanka is a 12th standard student of Delhi Public School in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi. A scholarship recipient from the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, she has been training in the sport for the last six years. At present, she is training at the Gun for Glory Academy in Pune.

During her visit to Odisha in June, 2010, she had said she would love to compete for Odisha in the national level championships if the association here received affiliation from the National Rifle Association of India.

“Sriyanka had appreciated the infrastructure we have for shooters here. Now that we have received the affiliation last year from the national association, we hope she will be able to represent Odisha in this year’s national championship,” said Hari Patnaik, secretary of the Odisha Rifle Association.