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Ayushi Podder, a young shooter from a small town in West Bengal is on her way to rising through the ranks in the Indian shooting circuit.
Podder earned plaudits for the nation at the recently-concluded Asian Shooting Championship held in Doha, Qatar winning a silver medal in the 50m Rifle 3 positions team event.
The 19-year old hails from a place named Sheoraphuli situated in the Hooghly district in West Bengal. She started to pick up the sport of shooting at the tender age of 13 in the year 2014. Ayushu began training at the Bull's Eye Shooting Academy, the only shooting academy in the state during the weekdays and further honed her craft on the weekends under the watchful eye of her father.
Ayushi's father, Pankaj Podder, serves as an Office Superintendent in the Eastern Railways and is a member of the Indian Railways Shooting team and helped the young Ayushi to develop her skills since the early days of her training.
Podder picked up the sport very well and went on to train under Junior National Indian Shooting coach Deepali Deshpande to become part of a professional training setup. She hit the competition circuit soon and within a couple of years started to win medals on the big stage as a junior.
Podder was part of the gold-medal-winning trio at the 2016 ISSF Junior World Cup along with fellow shooters Sonika and Gaayathri Nithyanandam. The following year, she teamed up with Mehuli Ghosh and Shreya Banerjee to win a total of four silver medals across different categories - Youth, Junior and Senior (Civilian) at the Pune Air Rifle Shooting tournament.
The young shooter achieved the biggest milestone of her nascent career when she won the silver medal in the 50m rifle 3 positions team event at the recently concluded Asian Shooting Championship in Doha.
Ayushi continues to compete at the Junior level tournaments on the world stage at the ISSF Junior World Cup, World Championships and Asian Shooting Championship. It is not long before the young shooter from West Bengal graces the grandest stage of them all - The Summer Olympics.
We thank Mr. Vishal Sharma, the PR person of Ayushi Podder for helping us cover the story of the shooter.
