Heavy rains in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad left Olympic bronze medallist Gagan Narang’s shooting academy, Gun for Glory, completely waterlogged. Narang claimed equipment worth Rs 1.3 crore, including 80 rifles and pistols were “adversely affected” in the deluge.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Gagan said, “It’s been a torrid 24 hours for us at Gun For Glory Hyderabad. We had water seeping into our ranges, our equipment, machines, all inundated. Equipment worth 1.3 cr, which included 80 brand new rifles and pistols for our new range and nine years of hard work by the GFG team, has been adversely affected, washed away by the deluge.
“First Covid and then floods have put us in a great spot of bother. All of this was meant to produce champions of tomorrow, champions for change. We have put in hours of planning, preparation to get this infrastructure going. Not easy to prepare a world-class venue like this. This place also has some very dear and personal memories. It was here that I would train along with shooters like Dhanush (Srikanth) and Esha (Singh), even current World Number 1. Elavenil (Valarivan). So special in very many ways. We are gutted and at (our) wits’ end after this massive damage caused by the deluge.
“These guns were to be used for our Telangana range project. Rain in the last two days dealt a heavy blow to our plans as this equipment worth 1.3cr procured for making champs was under 8 ft water. Our effort to produce shooting champs from Telangana washed away by rains,” he tweeted.
These guns were to be used for our Telangana range project. Rain in the last 2 days dealt a heavy blow to our plans as this equipment worth 1.3cr procured 4 making champs was under 8 ft water. Our effort to produce shooting champs from Telangana washed away by rains 😭 @KTRTRS pic.twitter.com/vIluI140Yr
— Gagan Narang (@gaGunNarang) October 15, 2020
Apart from 80 new rifles and pistols, Gagan said 20 old rifles, four electronic and 10 manual targets too were damaged.
Gagan added he was planning to reopen the academy at the beginning of next year. However, that is likely to be delayed further.
