India’s lone shooting sports portal completes 15 years

The country's only website dedicated to shooting, indianshooting.com, on Sunday completed 15 years, during which time it has also been used by cricketers such as Mahendra Singh Dhoni to a import top-end rifle. Fifteen years ago on this day, former India shooter Shimon Sharif launched the website while he was still an active rifle shooter.

Replying to a post by the indianshooting.com, Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra tweeted, "Congratulations and thank you for your contribution to the sport over the last 15 years. Best wishes!"

https://twitter.com/Abhinav_Bindra/status/1246645420677189632?s=20

Apart from shooters even cricketers have used the portal. Former Indian skipper Dhoni had imported a top-end Walther rifle in 2010 with the help of the website. "The idea of a shooting website first struck me after I came back from competing in the ISSF World Cup in Korea," said Sharif.

In 2004, when Rajyavardhan Rathore won India's first individual Olympic silver medal at the Athens Games, the interest in shooting sport started to grow. "Our sport needed a website and I gave it one. I tried to load it with as much information as possible. Within days, emails started pouring in from all corners of the country. Everyone wanted to know more about our sport," said Sharif.

On April 5, 2005, the website was officially inaugurated by Rathore in an event attended by the members of the Indian shooting team and National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) officials.

"It's been an incredible journey so far, and I'm so grateful to be a part of it. It's been amazing to see how so many people have used indianshooting.com to come close to our sport," added Sharif.

Also Read: I will not be the only gold medallist in a few month’s time — Abhinav Bindra