All smiles: Yugan and Nilaa had won the mixed trap team silver medal in Khelo India.
| Photo Credit: Akhila Easwaran
Two talented youngsters, aged 12 and 15, took the Sivanthi Adithyan Trap & Skeet Shooting Range at Alamadi by storm. Playing in their first Khelo India Youth (U-18) Games (KIYG) in Chennai, the pair missed the gold by just two points to settle for silver in the mixed trap event.
Cousins Nilaa Rajaa Baalu and S.M. Yugan bonded well and interestingly competed with themselves to bag the prestigious silver at the Games.
“More than competing with others, we loved competing with ourselves. We always wanted to outscore ourselves. Even while practising we had fun competing with ourselves as to who would score more. That was one of the reasons for our good performance,” said Nilaa.
While the Nilaa-Yugan trap shooting pair scored 125 out of 150 the Rajasthan duo of Vinay Pratap Singh and Aishwari Choudhary produced 127 to clinch gold.
Nilaa, an Intenational, and Yugan started their training for KIYG in early January. While mostly they trained in Almadi, they also whenever the two had time practised in Pudukottai, Coimbatore, and Chennai. “We ensured that every weekend we train together,” said Yugan, who hails from Coimbatore and was the youngest to win a medal at KIYG.
Nilaa was all praise for the organisers of KIYG. She said this was the first time a National shooting event for shotgun was held in Chennai as every time it was held in either Delhi, Patiala or Bhopal. “Shooting event was conducted very well. We are used to taking part in shotgun events in North India. We were wondering how it will be conducted here. It was organised excellently,” said Nilaa.
Next, Nilaa is aiming for a hat-trick of gold in the National junior women’s shotgun championships this year and Yugan is keen to qualify for the forthcoming Junior World Cup.
Hard-working and focused, the two trap shooters from Tamil Nadu are more than eager to win medals for India at the International events.