While shooting is a sport India excels in, skeet shooting is not as popular, unlike its other shotgun counterparts – trap and double trap. Nor does skeet have a medal-winning track record in shooting.

But this is fast changing, because what skeet does have now is a bunch of talented, young shooters and an Olympic gold medal winning coach in Ennio Falco. With the likes of Sheeraz Sheikh, Angad Vir Bajwa, Saniya Sheikh, Ganemat Shekhon notching consistent scores, it is a discipline where India is steadily getting better at.

For Sheeraz, shooting is a family sport in many ways. His father and grandfather are shooters, his brother Saif is a trap shooter and his cousin Saniya is an international shooter, who has represented India at the Commonwealth Games.

However, shooting was not his first choice. Like so many other Indians, it was cricket. He has even attended Under-16 camps with Karn Sharma and Piyush Chawla. However, the family legacy and bureaucracy in Uttar Pradesh cricket meant that the 30-year-old followed in his family’s footsteps.

The India No 1 in skeet is currently training for the upcoming Asian Games in Italy with national coach Falco, in the hope of getting his first individual medal for the country. Also training there for the last two months are Mairaj Khan, who is preparing for World Championship later in the month, and Asiad-bound India No 1 Ganemat Sekhon.

“I am training well in Italy from last 60 days, where we are shooting every day,” Sheeraz told Scroll.in. “We have been participating in local competitions to gain more match experience, which I think is very important before the main competition.”

Sheeraz has the backing of Falco, who selected him for the ISSF World Cup in Delhi in 2017 even though he was not the first choice. The shooter responded by reaching his first World Cup final and edging out veteran Jesper Hansen. In 2016, he was part of the men’s team that won the bronze medal at the Asian Shotgun Championship in Abu Dhabi.

The Meerut-based shooter is grateful for the tutelage of Falco, who was the gold medallist at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Bringing in the Italian in 2014 was a big an investment in a discipline that India has not traditionally done well in, but the move has paid good dividends, according to Sheeraz, who first made the national team in 2016.

“The National Rifle Association of India and Sports Authority of India has provided us with best foreign coach,” he said. “It’s very important as they have seen the journey we have been on. Ennio is very, very passionate and we have really improved after he came on board. From being nowhere we reached the Olympic Games in skeet (Mairaj at Rio 2016) and we now have seven to eight professional players in skeet. I think we have good platform and now is the time to win some medals we are working hard for it.”

Apart from not being a very accessible sport, skeet shooting is an expensive affair as well. While Sheeraz comes from a family that were able to help him, he has had to make do with not the best of equipment to quite an extent.

“Shotgun shooting is an expensive sport, starting from buying clay targets that cost Rs 6 per target to ammunition costing Rs 30,” Sheeraz said. “The prices of the shotgun start from about Rs 3 lakh. So it requires investment.”

But after his good performances in the 2017 where he reached the final of the ISSF World Cup in Delhi and the Asian Shooting Championship, he was included in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme for financial assistance from the Indian government.

“They support you really well, we are now training abroad to prepare for all-important competition coming up.” However, he added that there is still a lot of work to be done for shotgun shooting to be as successful as the rifle and pistol in India.

“I think we need more shotgun ranges in the country, which is slowly starting to happen. Recently, many ranges were built by Manav Rachna with top facilities for the shooters who want to start the sport. We need more ranges and clubs like these to support the new shooters,” he said.

The next target is of course a medal at the Asian Games, followed by the even more vital quest to secure a spot for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

“I will be in India on August 15 and then we will leave for Indonesia. Than we have very important World Championship in Korea and the Asian Shooting Championship in Kuwait. The aim is to do well in all of them,” he signed off.