Legacy's tale set to unfold
Rawnak Chowdhury, following in the footsteps of his illustrious father and mother, is set to start his sporting career by taking part in the 28th National Shooting Championships, which was officially inaugurated at the National Shooting Range in Gulshan yesterday.
12-year-old Rawnak is completely unknown to the sports fraternity, but his father -- shooter Saiful Alam Chowdhury Rinki -- and mother -- shooter Sabrina Sultana -- are two of the most famous faces in Bangladesh, bringing the nation many laurels at the international level. Between them, the pair had won gold in the Commonwealth Games, Commonwealth Shooting Championships and South Asian Games.
Like his parents, Rawnak also grabbed the butt of the firearm at a young age and the elder son of the international gold medallists is already familiar with the national shooting range in Gulshan as he had accompanied his parents there many times while his mother took part in the national shooting championships.
Rinki and Sabrina won gold medals in the Air Rifle event in Commonwealth Games, Commonwealth Shooting Championship and South Asian Games but their son has chosen to explore the pistol event.
“He has just completed 11 years on June 13 and started shooting from June 16. He had been in the junior camp arranged by the Bangladesh Shooting Sports Federation for the past two months. He will be competing in the 10m pistol event of this year's national shooting championships,” said Rinki during the inauguration ceremony of the 28th edition of the shooting championship, which will get underway from Saturday.
“He is interested in the pistol events. Although we tried him in the rifle event, he feels more comfortable in the pistol event and we want to support what he wishes,” said Rinki, who has turned to coaching after ending his career. “As a beginner, he is doing well and the foreign coaches are also optimistic about him.”
Describing her son's prospects, Sabrina said, “I think he will do better in the future as his accuracy is good at this age and he shoots perfectly at the target.”
Rawnak was also ecstatic after writing his name in the national shooting championship for the first time.
“I feel really happy to start [my career] as a shooter and I think I can do better in the pistol event because I had scored 519 in practice. Now my target is to produce good results in the national championship,” said the grade six student, who also enjoys basketball.
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