Kolkata , December 27 : Joydeep Karmakar still laments missing out on an Olympic medal after finishing fourth in 50m rifle prone event in London three years ago.
However, it was a dream-come-true for him on Sunday when he launched his academy in the city. A godown at the SAI Eastern Centre has been turned into a shooting range which comes as a New Year’s gift for budding marksmen in the state.
“This is only the third shooting academy by a shooter in the country .” Joydeep boasts while talking to Xtra Time on Saturday.
The academy was formally inaugurated at the SAI on Sunday in the august presence of Indian Table Tennis player Mouma Das , I League winning Mohun Bagan captain Shilton Paul , SAI regional director Manmeet Singh Goindi and BOA president Ajit Banerjee . JKSA have involved two ex-shooters of the country to train the shooters . Top international shooters are also expected to visit the academy from time to time.
“Former shooters like Bivabasu Ganguly, who represented India in Asian championship and Dibyendu Roy, who took part in the Colombo SAF Games (in 2006) will be trainers in my academy,“ Joydeep said.
“I have also plans of involving shooters of international repute as visiting trainers in the academy. Abhinav (Bindra) is aware of my project. But because of his tight schedule, he may not come here now. I’m still chalking out a proper training module for the academy,“ he added.
There will be as many as 80 trainees training at the academy to start with . An added intentive to train at the JKSA is whoever gets selected in the national teams or will win an national/international medal will get to train completely free of cost ,“ Anyone getting selected in the national team or winning a medal from my academy will get free training at JKSA . To attract young trainees , JKSA will provide rifles and shooting jackets at a nominal rent .”
Current SAI regional director Manmeet Singh Goindi has played a key role to get Joydeep’s project of the ground. SAI Eastern region is planning to have it’s own shooting range . The arrangement with Joydeep’s academy is temporary one . According to Mr Goindi ,“ To set up a proper shooting range, around 5 acres of land is required. We are in talks with several state governments in the region to identify a suitable plot for this purpose. After that we plan to build the infrastructure and run the shooting range properly . Till then , Joydeep can run his academy from here .”