Shooting the way to the top: The Suruchi Phogat and Kamaljeet Singh story

Suruchi Singh Phogat once wanted to be a wrestler. Kamaljeet Singh began as an athlete. On Friday afternoon in Nagoya, the two became Asian Games champions together — winning India its second gold medal this year, in the mixed 10m air pistol event at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Gallery with a score of 486.6, a new Asian Games record.

Suruchi, 20, is from Sisroli village in Jhajjar district in Haryana. Her father, Inder Singh Phogat, is a retired havildar of the 19 Punjab Regiment and an anti-militant operations specialist. It was he who put her into wrestling, inspired by a relative — Deaflympics champion wrestler Virender Singh, his cousin. Six months into the training, Suruchi suffered a collarbone fracture. Her father decided to try shooting instead, enrolling her under coach Suresh Singh in Bhiwani — who had once trained Paris Olympics double bronze medallist Manu Bhaker. Father and daughter travelled daily from their village to Bhiwani for practice.

“After his retirement from the Army, my husband spent most of his savings on getting Suruchi a secondhand pistol and pellets, and later a new pistol. He took loans from friends and relatives. He even made makeshift targets from wooden blocks. To see her win this gold medal is the reward of all that struggle,” Suruchi’s mother Sudesh Devi told The Indian Express. Suruchi also, is in no doubt about who she owes her success to. “My father would take me and my brother Nishant for training and do whatever it took to keep me shooting. I dedicate this medal to my parents and my national coach Samresh Jung,” she said.

Suruchi entered the Asian Games with a hat-trick of World Cup individual gold medals, a World Cup mixed team gold, a title in World Cup final last year and a World Cup title this year. Her coach Suresh Singh recalls what set her apart from the start. “What impressed me about Suruchi — as it was with Manu — was her natural shooting position. It was not adapted; it was instinctive, without any extra load on a single muscle. She never missed training. This gold will motivate her to win a medal at the LA Olympics,” he said.

Kamaljeet Singh’s trajectory to Nagoya was harder. The 23-year-old from Sulkha village in Haryana’s Rewari district began as an athlete before his uncle introduced him to shooting under coach Shaktipal.

In 2023, he broke into the Indian junior team, winning medals in the 50m pistol event at the Junior World Championships and Junior World Cups. That same year, he was in a road accident that killed two co-passengers in an auto and severely injured Singh. His family took loans to cover both his hospital stay in Gurgaon and his training equipment.

“I earn around Rs 10,000 a month. Since shooting is an expensive sport, coach Shaktipal helped us a lot, and we also took loans to get Kamaljeet a pistol and pay for his hospital stay. It has been tough, but the gold medal is a special feeling for the whole family. We bought 170 to 180 kg of sweets to celebrate in our village,” said his father Ratiram Sohlot, a factory worker, who had woken up early on Friday after a late night shift to watch his son compete.

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Shaktipal says the gold is only the beginning. “Kamaljeet missed the individual final by just one spot. I told him not to worry about the past and make a new start. He has never shied away from training despite all the hardships,” the coach said.

At home in Sulkha village in Rewari, Kamaljeet’s mother Rajbala is already planning his welcome. “Kamaljeet loves churma. I will make churma for him when he returns,” she said.

Nitin Sharma is an Assistant Editor with the sports team of The Indian Express. Based out of Chandigarh, Nitin works with the print sports desk while also breaking news stories for the online sports team. A Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award recipient for the year 2017 for his story ‘Harmans of Moga’, Nitin has also been a three-time recipient of the UNFPA-supported Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity for the years 2022, 2023 and 2024 respectively. His latest Laadli Award, in November 2025, came for an article on Deepthi Jeevanji, who won India’s first gold medal at the World Athletics Para Championship and was taunted for her unusual features as a child. Nitin mainly covers Olympics sports disciplines with his main interests in shooting, boxing, wrestling, athletics and much more. The last 17 years with The Indian Express has seen him unearthing stories across India from as far as Andaman and Nicobar to the North East. Nitin also covers cricket apart from women’s cricket with a keen interest. Nitin has covered events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2017 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships. An alumnus of School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, from where he completed his Masters in Mass Communications degree, Nitin has been an avid quizzer too. A Guru Nanak Dev University Colour holder, Nitin’s interest in quizzing began in the town of Talwara Township, a small town near the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border. When not reporting, Nitin's interests lie in discovering new treks in the mountains or spending time near the river Beas at his hometown. ... Read More

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