Lufthansa, the airline which lost his brand new DB Perrazzi 81 gun, intimated the marksman that his gun had finally been found.
MUMBAI: Ace double trap shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has reason to heave a big sigh of relief, at least for now. Lufthansa, the airline which lost his brand new DB Perrazzi 81 gun while the Athens silver medalist was on his way to New Delhi after clinching a berth at the Cairo World Cup, on Wednesday intimated the marksman that his gun had finally been found. Apparently, it was found in Frankfurt.
Confirming the news, Rathore told DNA: “I was informed by Werner Heesen, the Lufthansa general manager of passenger sales in India and South Asia, that a gun had been found at the Frankfurt Airport, and that they would get back to me with more details. In the evening, he sent me a message which said that it was indeed the same gun which had been lost.” How the gun reached Frankfurt will remain a mystery. “They have promised to deliver the gun to us by late Thursday evening or Friday morning,” he told DNA from New Delhi.
An agency quoted Heesen as saying that the weapon would be handed over to Rathore by Thursday. “The weapon was found in the custom warehouse in the custody of the Frankfurt airport authorities,” Heesen said. “Because it is a gun and not a normal baggage, it will be given special treatment and needs certain formalities for its shipment. It should most probably reach here by tomorrow’s direct flight from Frankfurt.”
“All this, besides causing me ‘mental anguish,’ and wasting my energies since the last fortnight, a period where I was recuperating, has meant I would have to miss out on the World Cup in Germany. It has affected my preparation for the forthcoming World Championships in Zagreb,” Rathore admitted. “For the time being, I would be content only after seeing the state of my gun, which I am not too sure about since it was stolen. However, I can’t thank the media enough for its role in helping sort out my problem.”
Everything working out well, Rathore hopes to train in Italy in the coming days. “From the day they lost the gun, we have been told that it would be delivered to us by the next flight. That next flight took some time to arrive,” said his wife Gayatri, a doctor in the Indian Army.
(With inputs from Bhargavi Kerur)
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