DELHI, INDIA: When 2026 Asian Games medal hopeful Niraj Kumar completed Class 12, he was faced with a decision that would go on to define his life. With his family preparing for his college admission, the young shooter had a different request for his parents.
He wanted them to use the money they had saved for his college education to buy him a rifle so that he could pursue shooting professionally.
“I told them, buy me the rifle. I will see the college degree later. First, I have to shoot,” Niraj Kumar recalls.
The rifle cost around ₹3-3.5 lakh, a significant investment for a family with no sporting background. Yet, for Niraj, it represented an opportunity to find out how far he could go in a sport that had started as an introduction through the National Cadet Corps (NCC).
Niraj Kumar was just 14 when he first picked up a rifle in 2014. His father, a retired Army officer, had enrolled him in NCC at school with the hope of helping him pursue a career in the armed forces eventually. While Niraj had always been interested in sport and had participated in kabaddi, table tennis and basketball during his school years, it was shooting that eventually captured his attention.
He was introduced to the 50m Rifle Prone event through NCC and began competing in Inter-Battalion and Inter-Group competitions. As medals started coming in, what began as an interest gradually developed into an ambition.
The aspirations of winning an Asian Games and Olympic medal
By the time he reached the pre-national level, Niraj Kumar had begun to believe that he could build a career in shooting, and he set himself the long-term goal of winning an Asian Games and Olympic medal. However, convincing his parents that shooting could be a viable career was a big challenge.
With no sportsperson in the family, his parents were understandably concerned about the uncertainty surrounding a career in sport, particularly given the costs involved in shooting. Niraj Kumar knew that before asking them to make a significant financial commitment, he had to earn their trust.
His journey at the time was far from straightforward. NCC provided him with a rifle until his first national competition, but he was asked to arrange his own equipment thereafter. At one point, Niraj Kumar began teaching younger NCC cadets so that he could use the final 15-20 minutes of their training sessions to practise himself.
He also competed using rented rifles, but soon realised that it was difficult to make meaningful progress without his own equipment. After one such competition, he returned home disappointed and began questioning whether he should continue with shooting.
“That was my breaking point. I thought either I will do it with my own rifle, or I will stop. Otherwise, my time would just be wasted,” the Asian Games contestant says.
His parents eventually chose to believe in his conviction and made the investment in his rifle. The decision soon began to produce results. In 2016, Niraj won a silver medal in the junior category at the National Championships, followed by a junior gold medal in 2017.
Those performances also brought him closer to another ambition that had been planted during his NCC days – joining the Indian Navy. After his first national medal, Niraj approached a Navy coach and expressed his desire to join the force through shooting.
He was initially told that he was too young for the admission and would have to return after proving himself with another medal. Niraj returned the following year after winning national gold and joined the Indian Navy through its sports quota in January 2018. It allowed him to focus on his dreams of winning an Asian Games medal.
For his parents, his entry into the navy provided the security they had always wanted for their son. For Niraj Kumar, it provided him the platform he needed to continue pursuing shooting at the highest level, especially the Asian Games and Olympics.
“They told me that now my future is secure from their side and that I could fly as high as I wanted,” Niraj says.
Watching shooting videos
The Asian Games medal hopeful’s transition into the 50m Rifle 3 Positions event brought another challenge. Having started his career in the prone event, Niraj Kumar had to learn the technical demands of the three-position discipline, comprising kneeling, prone and standing.
In the early stages, he did not have a dedicated coach guiding him throughout his development and instead took an unconventional route to improve his understanding of the sport.
For much of 2018 and the first half of 2019, Niraj spent hours watching ISSF videos on YouTube, studying techniques and learning the finer aspects of the event. He supplemented that knowledge by observing senior athletes once he entered the national setup and by seeking guidance from national coaches.
His progress eventually took him to the international stage, including a junior medal at the Asian Championships (not to be confused with the Asian Games) in 2019. Over the years, several coaches and senior athletes have contributed to his development to become an Asian Games medal hopeful.
Foreign coach Thomas Farnik, who joined the Indian squad in 2022, has emerged as one of the most influential figures in his coaching journey. The support from the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) became an important part of Niraj’s progression once he broke into the national setup.
“When I came into the junior squad, I started going for national camps. There were four-five camps in a year, and that gave me a proper platform to train and improve. Whether it is the coaches, physiotherapists, psychologists, nutritionists or the arrangements for camps and competitions, the federation takes care of a lot of things. As an athlete, you can then focus on your shooting,” says Niraj Kumar.
A change in fortunes for Niraj Kumar
Niraj Kumar believes that this structured support has given him and other Indian shooters a clear pathway to aim higher. His journey has also been supported by people outside the formal sporting system.
His friend Sumesh, who has been with him since his early days in shooting, stood by him when resources were limited and even shared his training ammunition to help him continue his preparation.
For the Asian Games medal hopeful’s family, meanwhile, the journey has come full circle. His father, who initially worried about the uncertainty of a sporting career, is now among his biggest supporters and continues to encourage him to focus on his performances.
His elder brother serves in the Army, while his mother, a homemaker with little exposure to competitive shooting, saw Niraj Kumar compete for the first time on television during the 2021 Delhi World Cup, when he reached the final.
The family’s concerns about whether shooting could provide Niraj with a secure future have long since been replaced by expectations of what he can achieve next, especially with the 2026 Asian Games looming in the horizon.
Cover image courtesy: Special arrangement
ALSO READ – Does Satwik-Chirag’s China Masters win dispel doubts ahead of 2026 Asian Games?
[This story has been generated from a syndicated feed and contains only minor edits]
If you liked this article, consider subscribing to our website to stay in touch with the latest updates in sports. You can also follow the India Sports Tribune on X and Instagram. We would love to talk to you!
Leave a Reply