Delhi shooting range for Commonwealth Games due to open next week

By Duncan Mackay

January 25 - New Delhi is set to open another of its Commonwealth Games venues next week when the shooting range is due to become officially operational.

India's Sports Minister M.S. Gill had promised yesterday, when opening the revamped Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, which is due to host the hockey, that facilities would be opened on average every ten days in the build-up to the opening of the Games on October 3.

Indian shooters are due to start holding a training camp at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range from next Monday (February 1) as part of their preparations for the Commonwealth Championships, which will be held at the venue which open on February 17 and are the test event for the Games.

The Championships had originally been due to be held there in October 2009 but were postponed because of delays in completing the venue, which are situated in Tughlakabad on the outskirts of Delhi.

Just as Gill had hailed the hockey stadium as the best in the world, he has claimed the shooting facilities are state-of-the-art.

Shooting is one of India's most successful sports, with Abhinav Bindra making history in Beijing when he became the first Indian to win an individual Olympic gold medal, claiming the 10 metre rifle title.

Gill said: "I have been to the Mexico Olympics [in 1968] in which Karni Singh, after whom the range is named, shot and I have been to Beijing [for the 2008 Olympics] as well.

"I can tell you that our range would be far superior to Beijing."

Gill is taking the credit for the getting preparations for the Commonwealth Games back on track.

He said: "When I joined the [Sports] Ministry in April last year, the work had not even started and arguments were going on.

"We have settled all that. "

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