'Can put 2 in Indian team': Eye on Paris, Tokyo 2020 reserve takes on coach's role in skeet shooting

Skeet occupies a position of ignominy among shooting disciplines, coming a distinct third to its cousins, pistol and rifle when it comes to popularity. India's shooters are no strangers to media attention but the limelight always appears to elude skeet.

It is little surprise then that India's skeet shooters are no strangers to making the best they can with the space they can occupy. A case in point is the fact that active skeet shooter Sheeraz Sheikh has also taken on a coaching role – while training for Paris 2024.

Sheikh was a reserve in India's Tokyo Olympics skeet team, making a quarter of India's four-person squad. Most of the press Sheikh received after his selection focused on his impression of his teammates – main shooters Angad Vir Singh Bajwa and Mairaj Ahmad Khan – and what exactly a reserve is expected to do. Sheikh handled those questions the same way he handles his conversation with The Bridge – with great hope.

"I can put at least two shooters in the Indian team. They have very good potential and their parents are ready to back them and buy necessary equipment for their aspirations," he launches on a description of his students.

The coaching gig started around 2015-16 when Sheikh started training in Jaipur.

Sheikh, therefore, was already in a guide's role when current national champion Darshana Rathore made her foray into skeet shooting.

"There were two or three girl shooters there, including Darshna Rathore and Kartiki Singh Shaktawat. Both are part of the Indian team and they are among the top skeet shooters in the country right now," Sheikh says.

Having egged young skeet shooters on, Sheikh was taken on in a more serious role recently. "I was approached by K.C. Singh Bhatti from Jaisalmer. They have opened a shooting range now – the JSM Shooting Range in Jaisalmer. There are around six very promising shooters and hopefully they will be good in future. They are in the age group between 15 to 20," Sheikh tells The Bridge.

It is among these youngsters that Sheikh feels he will be able to place two in the Indian team. Convincing aspiring shooters alone is a tall task in India, where the Rs 7-lakh cost of assembling skeet shooting gear is a clear deterrent. Sheikh has tried, in his own way, to make the game cheaper.

"I'm keeping my standards low so that everyone can afford me and I can spread the right knowledge to the juniors about skeet shooting," Sheikh says. It is for this that he is not considering a shift to full-time coaching. A real estate business in Delhi NCR also helps him keep coaching fees humble.

That Sheikh is popular as a coach is evident from high profile pupils, including Jaisalmer royal Chaitanya Raj Singh.

But he is not quite done with his own career yet.

Ahead of resuming training under coach Ennio Falco in Italy from March, Sheikh's sights are set on Paris 2024. He has no realistic hopes of qualifying for the 2022 Asian Games due to lack of game time. But he soldiers on, undeterred in all his roles.