Shooting stars shone bright in 2006

NEW DELHI: They shot at sight in every major competition, returning with a sack-full of medals, including 63 gold, six Olympic berths and three world titles, making it a glorious year for Indian shooting.

Making light of a stingy supply of ammunition, Indian shooters excelled at the various ISSF World Cups and World Championships across the globe, the Asian Games in Doha and Commonwealth Games in Melbourne to become the toast of the nation.

The shooters, junior and seniors together, picked as many as 129 medals, including 31 silver and 29 bronze.

The year was also unique in the sense that the sport found new heroes in 'Goldfinger' Samresh Jung and promising rifle shooter Tejaswini Sawant while Jaspal Rana made a historic comeback, winning three gold medals at the Asia besides one silver.

Abhinav Bindra became the country's first-ever world champion and Manavjit Singh, who clinched the title in trap event, became the second Indian within a week's time to win the World championships in Zagreb, Croatia.

The duo surpassed legendary Dr Karni Singh's watermark of trap silver medal attained at the 38th World Championships in Cairo, Egypt in 1962.