Lack of facilities no barrier for success, says Hungarian shooter Sidi

PUNE: World champion Peter Sidi has news for Indian shooting fraternity: Hungary, his homeland, doesn't have an indoor range.
"Hungarian federation is not rich, very poor. We don't have any indoor range. It's only now they are planning to have a few, that too only for training and not big enough for hosting international competitions," the 35-year-old, in the city to take part in the Gun for Glory shooting championship, said on Thursday.
Lack of indoor facility means Sidi and his compatriots can't train in winter, unless they are prepared to venture out to neighbouring countries like Germany, and that usually puts a hole in their pockets.
Yet, that didn't stopped him from winning the 50m rifle 3 position gold at the 2010 World championships and set world records in both the 10m air rifle and the 300m rifle 3 position events.
"The 300m event I shoot only in competitions, I don't train because it's not possible to train in winter (without an indoor range). The 10m air event has become a strong point probably because I don't shoot the 50m event in winter. It's expensive to go outside and train," Sidi said as a matter of fact.
He explained one didn't need special training for the 300m rifle 3 positions, in which he has the highest score of 1184. "The technique is the same for 10m and 300m shooting. The difference is only in distance, and you can learn everything about the 300m event in the 50m discipline," he said.
"India has a lot of good shooters in the 50m event. I am sure someone like Gagan (Narang) can win a 300m gold one day," he added in the same vein.
Narang and Sidi go back a long way, having trained together when compatriot Lazlo Szucsak, the Hungarian coach who guided the Indian team during the Athens Olympics, organised a training camp in his native place of Komarom.
Results (10m range): Rifle Men (Civilian): Shivraj Sawant (MAH) 584; Amit Rana (AI) 582; Sarang Thorat (MAH) 580. Rifle Men Junior (Civilian): Akash Barkul (MAH) 574; Ashish Tiwari (UP) 557; Kaiwalya Nerurkar (MAH) 547. Rifle Women (Civilian): Veena Patil (MAH) 391 (27x); Jayshree Bharti (AI) 391 (24x); Aishwarya Shroff (MAH) 390. Rifle Women Junior (Civilian): Aishwarya Shroff (MAH) 390 (-23x); Aditi Singh (DEL) 390 (-21x); Deepshikha Singh (MAH) 389. Pistol Men (Civilian): Prashant Nagare (MAH) 559; Zaheer Hawa (MAH) 558; Sandeep Kumar (UK) 543.Pistol Men Junior (Civilian): Kundan Singh Bhati (RAJ) 552; Ankit Pawar (UP) 319 (DNF). Pistol Women (Civilian): Sonali Parerao (MAH) 373; Nisha Rana (UK) 357; Shweta Udani (MAH) 353.