Asher can go all the way: Coach
New Delhi, Oct. 2: Italian trainer Marcello Dradi feels teenage shooter Asher Noria, a junior world champion, has the potential to fill the shoes of Athens Olympics silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.
Dradi has trained some of the finest shotgun shooters in the country, on and off since 1996, like former world champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Rathore and tipped Asher to be the next big thing in Indian shooting.
Dradi, a former Britain coach, said that at 19 years only, Asher has shown the maturity of a top class shotgun shooter. “I have been training with the Indian shooters and I feel youngsters like Asher have the potential to take the sport forward in the country. At 19 years he has matured as a top double trap shooter. It takes some time for shooters to mature, but Noria has done it at a young age,” said Dradi.
Asher, a first year student of mechanical engineering at the Georgia Tech University in Atlanta, became the third Indian shooter after Jaspal Rana (1994) and Navnath Farthade (2006) to win a gold in the world championship in the junior category in Munich in August.
Dradi also had words of praise for world No.3 double trap shooter Ronjan Singh Sodhi.
“Ronjan has consistently shot well in the last couple of years and if he continues in this way, he can surely win a medal for India at the London Olympics,” he said.
Dradi hoped that Indian shooters will win a bagful of medals at the Commonwealth Games, but pointed out that the presence of Australian duo Michael Diamond and Adam Vella in the trap event will make it an exciting contest for Manavjit and Mansher Singh. Diamond is a two-time Olympic champion (1996, 2000), while world no.5 Vella is 2004 Athens Games silver medallist.
“Vella and Diamond are world class shooters. Diamond has been winning this season. But Mansher and Manvajit are also quality shooters,” he said.
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