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Jatinder Singh Sahansweral would often think about his elder son Sarabjot Singh helping him on his five-acre farmland at the village Dhin near Ambala. While Singh would show interest in shooting and excel at the national and international level, Sahansweral often heard about different cities and countries from his son’s conversations. On Tuesday, when the Haryana shooter claimed India’s eighth Paris Olympics quota in shooting for Indian with a bronze medal in the men’s 10m air pistol final in the Asian Shooting Championship in Changwon, Korea, the proud father was waiting to hear about tales of another city from his son.
“I always wanted him to be a farmer like me. But when he showed interest in shooting, it changed my mindset and allowed him to do whatever he was interested in. With his medals and cash award, he has got the family, things like tractors and new land and he is a farmer at heart. He has got India the quota for the Paris Olympics and hopefully he can secure his place and compete in Paris and win an Olympic medal for India,” says the proud father while talking with The Indian Express.
It was at the Bhagirath Public School in the nearby town of Koolpur that a young Singh was initiated into shooting by coach Shakti Rana in a school camp in 2014. Two years of training at the school was followed by Singh joining the Shooters Terrace Shooting Academy under coach Abhishek Rana at Ambala. It also meant that he would cycle for more than five kms and take a local bus to the nearby city of Ambala. With him winning a youth bronze medal in the national shooting championship in 2017, father Sahansweral was sure that the youngster was serious and got him a new pistol with money borrowed from the village commission agent.
“Sarabjot never complained while travelling by cycle or bus to the academy and would come home and study. Sometimes, he would ask me to drop him at the bus stop on my motorcycle if he got late. I got him a new pistol worth 1.70 lakh after taking a loan from the commission agent. Those were the days post demonetisation and cash flow in mandi was less. I also tilled tractors for others’ farms at the rate of Rs 1000 daily to support Sarabjot’s training expenses. I had faith that Sarabjot would excel in whatever he competed,” remembers the father.
In 2019, Singh won the gold in the ISSF Junior World Cup in Germany apart from winning the junior Asian title in Taiwan. While he would break into the senior team soon and win medals in team events, Singh’s first major medal came in the form of the gold medal in the ISSF World Cup in Bhopal early this year. Singh followed that with fourth place finishes each in ISSF World Cups in Baku and Cairo respectively. “Right from the start, Sarabjot’s strength has been his physical fitness. Maybe that comes from his farming background. I knew that he comes from a village and I thought he would miss training for a day or two like any other kid. But he has never done that. His grip was fine but triggering movement needed some work and he grasped quickly,” recalls coach Rana.
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The youngster was also part of the gold medal winning 10m air pistol Indian team in Asian Games apart from winning a mixed team silver medal along with TS Divya in Hangzhou. On Tuesday, Singh was eighth in qualification and tied with five more shooters but sneaked into the final on the basis of higher inner ten’s. With five shooters out of eight shooters eligible for the Paris quota, Singh was in the lead after the first stage before dropping to third after the next stage. He was second after the first elimination behind Chinese Yifan Zihang and ahead of the second Chinese Jinyao Liu but slipped to third after the second elimination stage. Singh maintained his third spot till the penultimate elimination stage to end with the bronze and the Paris Olympics quota for India.
“He makes a fine start in the finals and that’s what he did after getting lucky in qualification. He had missed a quota chance earlier in the World Cup but made sure that he did not slip this time. He suffered a shoulder injury earlier this year and it has not healed properly yet. Hopefully he will be back to his best soon. He has good scores in qualification but we need to work on converting practice scores to the competitive scores,” says Rana.
Singh had got prize money of more than four crore for his twin medals in Hangzhou and father Sahansweral knows what Singh would do with the money. “He is not fond of big cars. Like always, he will tell me to buy more farmland,” says the father.
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