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Some of the world's elite shooters will transform their living rooms into competition ranges on 15 April for a first-of-its-kind international online championship, the coronavirus lockdown triggering another out of the box thinking.
An electronic target setup, beside a mobile phone with internet connection, is all they require to shoot in the championship.
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 (all Scotland), among others.
To make it more interesting, there will be live commentary by Olympian Joydeep Karmakar.
This comes after the unprecedented global health crisis forced the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) 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.
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".
The world's first international online championship will also be streamed live on the indianshooting.com Facebook page so that more people can watch live action.
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.
"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.
Besides India, shooters from Hungary, Spain and Scotland have already confirmed their participation.
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