Shooter Sarabjot hopes to excel on individual and team fronts in Paris

Sarabjot Singh
| Photo Credit: A.M. Faruqui

Unlike athletes who speak of their target of winning medals in the Olympics, Sarabjot, who will compete in men’s 10m air pistol, has set different goals for himself.

“Mine is a little different. I have to go there and achieve my goals. I have never achieved such goals in my training. These goals motivate me and make me confident. If I don’t achieve them, then I will feel like I have to do it again. It’s a technique type of thing,” Sarabjot, currently training in Luxembourg along with other Olympic-bound Indian shooters, told The Hindu.

Sarabjot said he faced good competition in India and is well prepared. “I don’t feel any pressure. I am giving my best, don’t feel low, don’t feel anything related to the Olympics.

“Anjum (Moudgil) told me when I would see the environment in the Olympic Village, I would get to know a lot about it. I said, ‘Okay, let’s go and see.’”

World No. 14 Sarabjot, an individual and mixed team World junior champion in 2021, is determined to do well in individual and mixed team (with Manu Bhaker) events. “Both mean a lot to me,” he said, adding, “We (Manu and I) talk a lot, it’s fun. We train well together…I am going in the right direction.”

The 22-year-old is delighted that most of the shooters in the current Indian team are from his own state Haryana or Punjab. “There are several shooters from Haryana and Punjab and many of them are my friends.”

One such friend is his room-mate Arjun Cheema, who was part of the Asian Games gold medal winning team (that also comprised Sarabjot and Shiva Narwal) and would now compete alongside Sarabjot in Paris.

Now, Sarabjot, who won three World Cup gold medals in 2023 and 2024 (including one in Munich in June) apart from two Asian Games medals last year, hopes that his personal coach Abhishek Rana will be there to inspire and witness his performance in Chateauroux.