Shooter Omkar targeting Olympic berth

India's talented shooter Omkar Singh is a content man. He has achieved all that he had hoped for as a child a uniform and a pistol to shoot although he had never thought.

India’s talented shooter Omkar Singh is a content man. He has achieved all that he had hoped for as a child a uniform and a pistol to shoot although he had never thought that one day he would be excelling in the world shooting arena.

In a candid chat with The Indian Express,the 26-year-old who was in Lucknow on Monday to attend the marriage of his cousin,said, Since childhood,I had a fascination for guns and pistols and uniform. With my job in the Indian Navy,I have got a uniform and as a shooter I have a weapon in my hand.

Omkar who won three golds and a silver in the Commonwealth Games 2010 is now targeting at an Olympic berth. I have been practising hard and I just hope to do well in the ISSF World Cup to be held at Sydney from March 21 to qualify for the 2012 Olympics. Winning a medal for my country at the Olympics has been my dream.

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Talking about his performance in the Asian Games Omkar said,I could not bag any medals at the Guangzhou Asian Games but that was because I did not perform well enough there. Actually,I got just 25 days to prepare for the Asian Games. There were too many felicitation functions,media interviews after the Commonwealth Games plus I had to participate in the ISSF World Cup final held at Germany where I finished seventh in the 10m air pistol event. Because of all this my preparations for the Asian Games got hampered. Presently,I am in good form having won 1 gold,3 silvers and 2 bronze in the 54th National Shooting Championships held at Delhi last month.

Despite winning so many medals at the Commonwealth Games,Omkar considers his performance in the ISSF World Cup held at Sydney last year as his best performance ever. I won a silver in the 10m air pistol event in that World Cup which pushed forward my world ranking to a career best of number 3. Presently,I am ranked 12th in the 10m air pistol event, he explains.

Omkar hails from Madhya Pradesh and keeps visiting UP because of his ancestral land at Jahanaganj,Azamgarh. He said shooters Annu Raj Singh and Imran Hasan Khan who hail from UP have been doing really well which just shows that there is no dearth of talent in the state. Actually,be it UP or any other state,there is good talent available,the only thing is that it needs a good infrastructure and facilities, he said.

The young shooter was full of praise for the facilities given by the Central government for preparation of the Commonwealth Games which yielded results and hoped that it will continue with the facilities keeping the London Olympics in mind.

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Shooter Omkar targeting Olympic berth

India's talented shooter Omkar Singh is a content man. He has achieved all that he had hoped for as a child a uniform and a pistol to shoot although he had never thought.

India's talented shooter Omkar Singh is a content man. He has achieved all that he had hoped for as a child a uniform and a pistol to shoot although he had never thought.