High Five for DAV College Chandigarh – Five of its students make it to Asian Games podium

By Saurabh Duggal

What’s the common between 17-year-old Palak Gulia, and four 21-year-old sportspersons Manu Bhaker, Sarabjot Singh, Vijayveer Sidhu, and Adarsh Singh? That they are part of the Indian shooting contingent for the Hangzhou Asian Games is one. The second is, all of them are into pistol shooting events. The third is they made the country proud by making it to the podium at the games. And the fourth common thread that bounds the shooters hailing from the different cities of the Northern Indian states of Haryana and Punjab is that they are the regular students of DAV College Chandigarh, famous for its rich sports legacy – Cricketing legend Kapil Dev to Yuvraj Singh to Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra to its credit. And now these five shooters too have added into the legacy of the institute.

Asian Games champion Palak is a BA first year student, while the other four medalists are studying in the MA 2nd year Public Administration.

On Friday, Palak, who hails from Faridabad, clinched an individual gold with a new Asian Games record in the women’s 10m air pistol event. She is part of the India’s silver-winning women’s 10m air pistol team event.

On Thursday, Sarabjot, who hails from Ambala, won a team gold in the men’s 10m air pistol.

Earlier in the games, Olympian Manu Bhaker, who hails from Jhajjar, won the team gold in the women’s 25m Sports Pistol, while Vijayveer and Adarsh, who hails from Mansa and Faridabad, respectively, were part of the bronze-medal winning men’s 25m Rapid  Pistol team.  

“It’s a moment of pride for our college. There Asian Games medals will be great motivation for the other students of the college to excel in their respective fields,” says Associate Professor Amanendra Mann, who is heading the College's sports department.

Lately, DAV College has emerged as one of the most preferred colleges for elite shooters in the country.

 “The college provides the best facilities to its players and contributes to their pursuit of sports excellence," says Mann, who is also a qualified International shooting judge.