Sarabjot bang on target

The Punjabi shooter keeps away from exam hall but hits jackpot at shooting range

The winner of the gold medal in the international shooting championship, Sarabjot Singh, may have failed to script an answer to a question in the examination hall, but he has gone like lightning in the shooting range, always hitting the bull’s-eye.

Yet he says, "It is not the medals that make an athlete; it is the discipline and consistency."

Outside shooting range, he is a normal Punjabi boy who enjoys going on gedi with his friends. He won his first senior world cup gold here in the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol here at the Madhya Pradesh State Shooting Academy on Wednesday.

When asked if the "Path of Victory is strewn with thorns; tell us how you have removed those thorns to reach the goal, Singh replied, "The biggest thing an athlete has to do to win a medal is sacrifice. Sacrifice of a normal teenage life and a carefree life. We don’t even get time to think about anything else. This medal costs us a normal college life, school life, friends, and what not. Do we like the price of this? No, but do we like the prize we get? Absolutely. There is no bigger feeling than seeing your flag rise the tallest."

Asked why he chose shooting, Singh said, "I was never good at academics." To be honest, I was one of the backbenchers who would disturb the whole class. I never liked studying; my parents even told me to follow the Punjabi trend, prepare for a language exam, and go to some other country, but I was stubborn and said I wanted to stay in my country and do something for it. "I tried different sports, then landed on shooting."

Singh, who comes from a farmer’s family, shared the reaction of his parents when he told them he wanted to pursue shooting. "My father said no. It’d be very expensive, but I don’t know what the school’s director saw in me”.