In a hotly contested firing competition held at Mhow (MP), under the aegis of the Army Rifle Association (ARA), young recruits and fledgling soldiers of the Punjab Regiment did the regiment proud by lifting the prestigious Young Blood Championship Trophy. A total of 34 teams participated in this tournament held in the premises of the Infantry School, Mhow.

The ARA conducts firing competitions once in a block of two years where selected teams from the various Army commands participate alongwith teams fielded by the Assam Rifles (AR), Border Security Force (BSF), Territorial Army (TA) and Navy. However, this year the ARA matches were conducted under ‘National Combat Forces Shooting Championship’. The events included stringent combat shooting, quick reaction shooting and precision shooting involving day and night firing by small arms.

The Young Blood Championship is a newly introduced event which is open to all regimental centres of the Indian Army, AR and TA, each of which can field one team. The conditions are that each individual participating in the tournament must be below nineteen-and-half years. Each centre can field three recruits/young soldiers in each category while a maximum of six recruits/young soldiers are permitted to participate in a team.

The victorious Punjab Regimental team comprised recruits Kushal Kumar, Gurjit Singh and Sep Dinesh Verma, all of whom participated in the 9mm pistol competition. Amongst the 5.56 INSAS rifle firers were recruit Kanwaljit Singh and Sepoys Vijay Kumar and Mahender Singh. Apart from individual gold medals, the team received the Young Blood Championship Trophy from Lt Gen DB Shekatkar, Commandant of the Infantry School. This new trophy has been introduced by the Director General, Infantry last year. The trophy is made of pure sterling silver and has a unique and striking design. It is a matter of pride and honour for the Punjab Regiment to be the first to lift this trophy conceived by the Director General Infantry Lt Gen Shankar Prasad who is also the Colonel of the Punjab Regiment.

Amongst the winners of the quick reaction shooting matches for pistol and carbine and also for the precision shooting matches for service rifle, were L Nk Rakesh Kumar and Sep Dunni Chand respectively, both from 13 Punjab (JIND). These two individuals were proud recipients of gold medals. Sep Dunni Chand won a gold medal in pistol firing as well. The regiment has indeed established a record of sorts in these prestigious firing competitions.