After enduring a heartbreak on his Olympics debut, pistol shooter Sarabjot Singh on Tuesday finally redeemed himself by winning the bronze medal in the mixed team event at the Paris Olympics 2024 alongside Manu Bhaker. The medal is India’s first in team events at the Olympics, and the second in the edition after Manu’s individual bronze ended India’s 12-year wait for an Olympic shooting medal.

A few days ago, Sarabjot had missed out on the final berth in the men’s 10m pistol event by a whisker, but deep inside that narrow miss kept himself motivated for the team event, said his long-time coach Abhishek Rana.

Hailing from Dheen village of Ambala, Sarabjot was born to a farmer Jatinder Singh and his mother Hardeep Kaur, a homemaker. A product of DAV College, Chandigarh, from where his partner Manu is currently pursuing her Masters, Sarabjot initially wanted to be a footballer but later when he spotted some kids wielding air guns at a makeshift range during a summer camp, the fascination for shooting hit him.

He was just 13 then, and when he opened up about his interest to his father, he met with rejection citing that the sport was an expensive one for his father to afford from his farming. However, his father finally supported his choice and on Tuesday Jatinder was happy recollecting that day.

“I’m very happy for Sarabjot, after all it was at his insistence that I agreed to his taking up the sport. I wasn’t much aware about the sport back then, and found it to be an expensive sport. But he made up his mind to become a shooter, and got a very good coach in Abhishek Rana, who has been very supportive of our son,” said Jatinder in a telephonic interaction with The Statesman.

“This medal is not only for the family, it’s for the entire nation, Sarabjot could make it to the podium only because of the good wishes and prayers of the entire nation,” he said.

Jatinder, however, now keeps a tap on the sport, and has the records, medals that India won in the sport, at his fingertips. Indian shooters drew a blank in the previous two editions of the Olympic Games held in Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021, and Jatinder compared the twin medals from the sport in Paris to the Kumbh Mela that returns after 12 long years.

“I prayed to the Almighty, that the Kumbh Mela also returns once in 12 years, and asked for blessings for our shooters competing at the Olympics. Our shooters haven’t won an Olympic medal for the past 12 years. Have some mercy on our kids, and I think God has answered our prayers,” he said.

Extremely dedicated and sincere kid: Sarabjot’s coach

Sarabjot coach Abhishek Rana termed his prodigy Sarabjot as an “extremely dedicated and sincere” kid, moments after the shooter landed on the podium on Tuesday. Sarabjot has been training with Abhishek ever since he took up the sport, and the coach conceded that the debacle in the men’s 10m Air Pistol fired him up from inside to make it up in the team competition.

“He was naturally disappointed after missing out narrowly in the men’s event. We worked on the mental aspect after that and it reflected during today’s performance when he dominated his opponents with a series of excellent shots. He went into today’s event with a winning mindset,” Rana revealed and added that the camp in the lead-up to the Games in Luxembourg helped the shooters a lot.

”I have seen him since he was a kid. He was extremely dedicated and sincere. He joined my academy in 2017 and won a bronze at the national level in 2017, which motivated him even more and he started thinking of winning gold,” the coach added.

On Tuesday, the 22-year-old started with a 8.6 that cost India the first two points even though Manu came up with a 10.2 in her opening shot. He, however, recovered quickly with scores of 10.5, 10.4 and 10 to help India take the next six points.

Manu struck at least a 10 on her first seven shots. However, Oh Ye Jin kept the South Koreans in the hunt with her consistency as they recovered from an 8-2 deficit to stretch the match to 14-10. Oh Ye Jin, the Olympic champion, struck a 9 on her final shot while her partner managed a 9.5. Manu hit a 9.4 but a 10.2 from Sarabjot Singh sealed the medal for India.

Earlier, on Monday, Manu and Sarabjot finished third in the qualifying round to make the bronze medal match, behind Turkiye’s Sevval Ilayda Tarhan-Yusuf Dikec and Serbia’s Zorana Arunovic-Damir Mikec. Serbia won the gold medal with a 16-14 win over Turkiye.