Some of the world’s top shooters will transform their living rooms into competition ranges on April 15 for a first-of-its-kind international online championship, a unique event as the coronavirus lockdown continues.

An electronic target setup, beside a mobile phone with internet connection, is all the players will require to shoot in the championship.

From India, the event will see participation from World Cup medallists Manu Bhaker, Sanjeev Rajput and Divyansh Singh Panwar, whose Tokyo Olympics dreams have been put on hold for a year after the Games’ postponement last month due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

An initiative of former India marksman Shimon Sharif, the championship, which will be live streamed on the internet, will see about 50 shooters, including double gold medallist at the 2019 World Cup in Delhi Veronika Major (Hungary), Nicolas Fraga Corredoira (Spain), Emila Faulkner, Isobel Mactaggart and Lucy Evans (Scotland)..

To make it more interesting, there will be live commentary by Olympian Joydeep Karmakar.

This event comes after the unprecedented global health crisis forced the International Shooting Sport Federation to cancel all their tournaments this year, including the World Cups.

“This competition is an effort to keep our sport alive even in these tough times,” Sharif, who run the indianshooting.com portal, told PTI.

“This one is only for the elite shooters but later we will organise competitions which will be open to all once every quarter with a prize money.”

All participants will shoot at the same time from their respective homes and it will be streamed live on internet through an app which “makes the competition very transparent”. There will be a panel of jury who will also be logged in to monitor the shooters throughout and keep a track of scores.

“The idea is that without travelling abroad and spending so much on travel etc. shooters can compete against each other from their home or their local ranges.

The competition will be held at 4:00 PM India time. Shooters from different countries and time zones will all have to join in and shoot at the same time. It will be streamed live on indianshooting.com Facebook page.

With PTI Inputs