New Delhi, Sep 20 (IANS): Promising national shotgun shooter Namanveer Singh Brar's alleged suicide at his residence in Mohali in the early hours of September 14, has shocked the shooting sports fraternity with national shotgun coach and top international marksman Mansher Singh saying he can't believe that such a "bubbly and full of enthusiasm" youngster could take such a drastic step.

Brar, whose profile page on the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) website says he was 28 years old, allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself at his Sector 71 residence in Mohali. The trap marksman, who had been competing "for several years", starting off as a junior, had finished fourth in the Minimum Qualification Score (MQS) category of the ISSF World Cup in Delhi held in March this year.

"He was in the national squad and would have gone on to compete in the World Cups before the Tokyo Olympic Games had the events not got cancelled because of the pandemic," said Mansher, who added that he had the opportunity to interact and coach the marksman during the Delhi World Cup.

Brar was also the winner of a bronze medal in double-trap at the World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea in 2015.

"He was a very forthcoming, helpful, young guy… newly-married I think. The whole family used to come to the (Karni Singh) shooting range (in Tughlakabad). His sister also is a shotgun shooter. He would be very respectful to his seniors. It is a huge loss for the entire shooting fraternity. In fact, all our conversation on whatsapp groups revolved around him for quite some time. It was a very unfortunate incident.

"He was part of the national core group so he used to come for the camp. The first bit of training I imparted to him was during the Delhi World Cup in March… that time yes I was helping him out. He was actually very excited to be in the team. He came on time, was always there early in the morning. He used to train more than the other… he was so full of enthusiasm, as it was his first India representation. He had that extra zeal to do well," said Mansher.

"And I was quite confident he would carry on but unfortunately there were no World Cups after the Delhi event. He was in the top 5; I'm sure he would have been in the team had the situation been normal and would have gone for some world cups," added Mansher.

Mansher said that everybody gets affected differently because of the current pandemic situation around. But I've seen that happening to athletes living in bio-bubbles.

Brar had also won the double trap gold at the Sardar Sajjan Singh Memorial Championship held at Patiala in 2013.