Golden eye

He is 17 years old and had one more golden finish this summer in Europe. In the junior double trap event at the 50th World Shooting Championships in Munich in August, Asher Noria pocketed the yellow metal with a fine display of marksmanship, scoring 146/150. He also acquired the added distinction of equaling the world junior record held from 2004 by William Chetcuti of Cyprus. The World Championship is one of the toughest and most fiercely contested competitions.

"I came here to win the gold. Everything fell in place today and I could equal the world record. It has been a great season for me as two months back I won the junior World Cup gold in Suhl, Germany,” said Asher, as reports The Times of India, August 6, 2010. The Suhl victory was the second successive gold in junior World Cup for Noria, a rare distinction as no shooter so far has won the prestigious event two years in a row. At the Commonwealth Youth Games in Poona in 2008, Noria had outshot his competitors to stand at the top of the podium in the double trap event.

Having completed his schooling, the Hyderabad boy has now joined the renowned Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, US in the engineering stream. Noria, whose family runs a fashion jewelry business under the brand name Estelle, plans to continue competitive shooting alongside his studies.