Dhanbad based award winning woman rifle shooter Konika Layak has procured a German made 10 meter rifle with financial support of the local community and actor Sonu Sood.
Konika, 26, daughter of a small time trader and house maker, while expressing happiness after receiving the rifle said, “I received help of around Rs 1.8 lakh through the local community of Dhanbad at the initiative of some social organisations last year itself out of which Rs 51,000 each was provided by Jharia based trader Sumeet Khaitan and an NRI Prakash Kumar.”
“A shortage of around Rs 45,000 was still there after the local community helped and I am thankful to Sonu Sood sir who provided this remaining amount which helped me procure the rifle for starting my practice,” said Konika.
Dhanbad based social worker Ankit Rajgarhia who tweeted to Sonu during during March this year highlighting problems faced by Konika said, “I am happy because Sonu Sood sir has also assured me to bear the cost of her training at Joydeep Karmakar Shooting academy at Calcutta after the improvement in Covid situation.”
Giving details of her shooting journey, Layak said, “I was always inclined towards the defence service since my school days and joined NCC team of BSS Women’s College in 2013 and during the stint with NCC team started learning rifle shooting.
“I started participating in open rifle shooting competitions in 2014 and since 2016 started participating in national level events representing the Jharkhand team at senior level,” said Konika.
“In 2017 national senior rifle shooting championship I won maximum points (404 points) among all players of Jharkhand and also took part for trials of senior national team twice during2018 but could not make into the team due to lack of practice owing to deficiency of rifle,” said Konika and added that they carry out practice at IIT-ISM on every Sunday but due to Covid constraint practice is lying suspended April thus carry out the practice at home itself.
“Though mine is the 10 meter rifle, I also take the help of our coach, Rajendra Singh Vidhi who has a 50 meter rifle during the practice at IIT-ISM,” said Layak.
