LUCKNOW, Sept. 9 -- When two students of La Martiniere College met for the first time almost 25 years ago, they didn't know that both would take up the same sport and inspire their daughter to follow in their footsteps. Rachit Tandon was a year junior to his friend Ishrat Khan in the school but both were passionate about shooting, especially shotgun. They grew up together and their passion for shooting turned into a special bonding between them and this friendship didn't stop here as now the daughters of these two are renowned shooters in the Indian circuit. Both Naisha Tandon and Haya Ishrat Khan, who are the students of La Martiniere Girls' College, are the shotgun shooters. They finished with a gold and silver medals in their categories at the 48th Uttar Pradesh State Shooting Championship at Jaipur where Olympics silver medallist shooter Rajvardhan Singh Rathore himself presented both medals and bouquets on Sunday. Undoubtedly, the two shooters are quite consistent in the state championships and now are gearing up for their next journey at the nationals and Naisha has set her eyes on qualifying for the Indian youth team for the next international event. "Qualifying for the youth team of India is my next target. Haya and I have grown up watching our fathers shooting at different levels," said Naisha, 15, who scored 86 out of 125 points to win the gold in her category. Naisha also won a gold in the pre-state championship at New Delhi last month. She said she isn't in a hurry to fix any big target for her, but will take one step at a time. "Shooting requires a lot of focus and concentration and it also teaches you to stay focused on your target. Once I achieve my first goal, only then I will aim for the next," she said. Haya spoke about her father's role in shaping her career in shooting. "I too grew up watching my father and uncle doing shotgun shooting and when I got a chance to pick the sport, I too chose shotgun shooting," she said. Both Naisha and Haya are also inspired by Aligarh shooter Sabeera Haris, who won two gold medals at the 16th Asian Shooting Championship in Kazakhstan this August. "We met her for the first time and we were impressed by her progress in sport so we decided to follow her footsteps," said Haya. "After seeing Haris, I also thought that I could win a medal for India one day," she added. Rachit Tandon recalled that it was a shooting championship in Lucknow Mahotsav when he and his friend Ishrat shot clay birds with professional shotgun Beretta. "Among the 65 participants, we both did well and I got gold and that success inspired me and my friend to carry on with professional shooting," said Rachit, who went to attend the qualifiers for the 2024 Olympics. "In fact, I had no idea of shooting clay pigeons through sporting guns and I used my licensed gun and got the first prize at Lucknow Mahotsav in 2009. Thereafter, I went to participate as a professional shooter in ISSF events in various parts of India before trying my luck in the Olympics qualifier," he added. Rachit said still there is no professional shooting range in Lucknow, but it was Brig SS Pundir and Col Nitin Joshi of 11 Gorkha Rifles who allowed the shooters to train at their official shooting range in the state capital. "We have been training at the 11 Gorkha Rifles Regimental Centre shooting range as that's the only place where we can train for clay pigeon shooting. Success of both Naisha and Haya is because of their training at this centre in the last three months," he said, adding, :"We all are waiting for the Nadarganj shooting range to start soon as recently CM Yogi Adityanath Ji has sanctioned a big amount for this." "In fact, the Uttar Pradesh Shooting Association and its president Shyam Singh Yadav are putting a lot of effort to let UP shooters do well at the national and international levels. In UP, we have a long list of national and international shooters. If we get adequate training facilities, we can have many more international shooters in future," he added....