A national target shooting champion, coach and promoter-proprietor of the Doon Institute of Shooting and Sports, Dehradun-based Mayank Marwah (28) established a new record in the 25 metres standard pistol event at the G.V. Mavlankar National Shooting Championship held in Jalandhar last December (2008). Against the previous record of 271 points over 30 rounds, Marwah averaged 275 to establish a new national record in the event, which was organised by the National Rifle Association of India and attracted the participation of 1,500 sharpshooters from across the country.
Marwah’s record-breaking achieve-ment makes him eligible to participate in the qualifying rounds of the main national championships and trials to be held this October in Pune. As earlier he had qualified for the 10 metres air pistol, 25 metres centre fire pistol, 50 metres free pistol and 25 metres rapid fire pistol events, Marwah will have to do well in all six events to be held this year and average 95 percent to qualify for the national team.
A focused and promising marksman, he won his first shooting championship quite by chance in the pre-nationals of 1992 at Ahmedabad, where he represented Border Security Force kids, and bagged a bronze. “I had just gone to watch the event when my dad persuaded me to participate. Since then I have been mentored and inspired by my father, Surender Mohan Marwah, a commandant in the Border Security Force and a shooting medalist in the Commonwealth (1990) and Asian Games (1994). My mom Madhu was also a competitive shooter who won a gold medal in the Uttarakhand state championship of 2001. But after my father passed away that year, she withdrew from the sport and now teaches at the Doon Institute of Shooting & Sports, promoted by my father in 2000,” says Marwah.
After finishing school in 2001, Marwah took to top-level competitive sharp shooting. The same year he participated in the G.V. Mavlankar pre-nationals at Asansol and won a silver in the 25 metres centre fire event. At the annual Uttarakhand State championships he has won over 50 medals, bagging several medals every year in various events. At the national level, Marwah has thus far bagged two silvers and one bronze.
“Determination, dedication and a daily regimen of exercise are required to improve timing and succeed in this sport,” he says. After a string of victories at the national level, Marwah is now looking towards championships abroad, but for participation in international events he requires ample finances for practice and equipment. With the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) now sponsoring him, he plans to enter some prominent international shoot-outs next year.
Simultaneously with representing ONGC in national sharp-shooting tournaments/championships, Marwah coaches students of several schools in Dehradun to develop shooting skills. And even as he readies to participate in the National Games to be held in Ranchi this month, he is looking forward to travel to Singapore for the Open Shooting Champion-ship in end July. “Now that I’m certain I’ll be entering international arenas soon, I am concentrating on expanding my business ventures — promoting a restaurant and launching an adventure sport academy for rafting, parasailing and mountaineering — to raise the necessary funding,” says Marwah, quite obviously a self-made winner.
Natasha Pathak (Dehradun)