Teen shooter Shivam Thakur comes forward to help pandemic victims

Unheralded shooter Shivam Thakur, who has excelled in youth tournaments, on Saturday said he has contributed 60 percent of his earnings to athletes struggling to survive COVID-19 pandemic. 17-year-old Thakur, who competes in 10m air pistol, has been selected to represent India in next Youth Asian Games, scheduled to be held in UAE in July, European Youth Games in September and World Youth Games in Portugal towards end of year. shooter earns about Rs 5 lakh in a year through his scholarship and funding programmes.

Teen shooter comes forward to help

He says he is brand ambassador of (School Games and Activity Development Foundation) SGADF, which he himself started in 2017 to help children take a shot at realising ir dreams in field of sports.

"I have decided to give away 60 percent of whatever I have earned so far through various platforms to athletes struggling in ir battle against pandemic," he said.

"I think everyone should come forward and contribute whatever y can to help country stop disease from spreading furr and affecting more people."

Thakur comes from a family with a middle class ecomic background and his parents, who are from Sitmani in Bihar, own a shop in ida. Thakur wanted to become a fast bowler initially but he gave up his cricketing ambitions after suffering a ligament injury in 2015 in Kerala. "I couldn't continue with cricket after that as it is physically a more demanding sport and we were n t in a position to take care of expenses to treat my injury," he said. 

unprecedented health crisis, which originated in Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei province, has so far claimed over three lakh lives while infecting more than 46 lakh people across world. In India, pandemic has led to over 2700 deaths and more than 86000 positive cases. People from all walks of life, including sports, are contributing to relief measures initiated by central and various state governments.

Im credits: Twitter