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Shooting star on the high sail
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Not since the heyday of Geeta Shankar (nee Sundaram) or Roopa Unnikrishnan, winner of a medal at the last Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, has the city discovered an international shooter, proficient enough to anchor a gold. The young woman with the rifle who is the cynosure of all eyes is Mahalingam Dhareenee. A profile...
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STUDIED AGAINST the background of the national power equations in an elite sport like shooting, be it rifle or pistol, Tamil Nadu, notably Chennai, has a distinguished place. The champions coming out of this metropolis may not match those of the traditional locations such as Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, or those from the Armed and Police forces, but the few who surged into the limelight managed to attract national and international attention.
Interestingly, the list includes even the current president of the Tamil Nadu Olympic Association, B. Sivanthi Adityan, a name to reckon with in the field of trap and skeet shooting. More than being a shooter, competent enough to corner gold at the National championship, Mr. Adityan has played a key role in giving an image to shooting in the State both as an administrator, as a guardian for quite a few and as the guiding spirit behind the Chennai Rifle Club. His personal contribution has been immense in realising the dream of many a shooter in establishing impeccable ranges, conforming to international regulations, both named after him at the Police Commissioner's Office, Egmore, and the trap and skeet venue at Alamady.
Not since the heyday of Geeta Shankar (nee Sundaram) or Roopa Unnikrishnan, winner of a medal at the last Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, has the city been in the throes of discovering an international shooter, proficient enough to anchor a gold. The young lady with the rifle on the centre-stage today is Mahalingam Dhareenee. Six medals in the State championships last week is no mean achievement. And what's more, Dhareenee, a grand-niece of the former national coach, Bala Shanmugam, has been in the limelight for over five years since she began to hit the targets, and make a sweep of events for three years, successively. In the Nationals, she has a decent level of showing what with a clutch of one gold (air-rifle), two silvers and one bronze (prone) and a bronze in team event surfacing last time.
Encouraged by her parents, Uma Maheshwari and Mahalingam, a city based businessman, Dhareenee's bailiwick is the 50 metre P- 3, and air-rifle. She is one of the two — the other is Ms. Sindhu from Kerala — who have made it from this side of the Vindhyas to the National squad for international competitions. She had a fairly high rating in the 3-Ps at the recent international championships at Shul (Germany) and also in Plzen (Czechoslovakia).
After schooling at the Ashram and then at Cambridge Matriculation, Dhareenee, graduated in Sociology from the M.O.P. Vaishnav College. She hopes to take a Master's Degree shortly. Apart from acknowledging the support of her family and coach, Bala Shanmugam, 20-year old Dhareenee is grateful to Mr.Adityan for being the chief sponsor. Optimistic of moving up the ladder in the coming years — the next target being the Asian Games at Busan — Dhareenee agrees that perfection and precision are the keywords in shooting. Striving for these two elements is her priority even as she prepares for the forthcoming National Games in Hyderabad and the National Championship in Bangalore. She hopes that shooting as a discipline will be a reality during the National Games in the light of scepticism over the ranges conforming to the specifications submitted by the National Rifle Association of India. (NRAI).
Compared to many disciplines, shooting is expensive. An air-rifle, fit for use in competitions, costs anything around Rs. one lakh, and a pistol is only a little less without import duty. Costly too is imported ammunition. The best is available only in Finland and Germany.
Dhareenee says the Lapua brand manufactured in Finland is the best for competitions although the other variety, Eley from Germany, is also used in important events. However, like the rest, Dhareenee too, depends on the Sports Authority of India for imported ammunition, which however, is invariably in short supply for home range practice.
Dhareenee believes that the Hungarian coach, Lazlosuzchak, has done a world of good for Indian shooting. Appreciative of his training methods and modes, she says the quality of Indian shooters went up notches after the Hungarian came on the scene. However, she is unable to fathom the poor run of Indian shooters at the World Championships at Lahiti ( Finland ) last week. Expectations were belied in this event and those thought to be in the top rung flunked badly.
What began as a toddler's hobby is now a consuming passion with Dhareenee, who, understandably, has set her heart on earning higher laurels. Aiming high is her target. And is not that motto appropriate to shooting, or for that matter, to any sport?
S.THYAGARAJAN
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