Niraj Kumar Bet His College Fund On A Rifle –  And Built a Shooting Career

NEW DELHI-When Niraj Kumar finished Class 12, his parents were preparing for the conventional next step in his education: college. Niraj, however, had a different plan. He wanted the money his family had saved for his college education to be spent on a rifle, convinced that shooting could become his career.

“I told them, buy me the rifle. I will see the college degree later. First, I have to shoot,” Niraj recalled.

The rifle, costing around ₹3-3.5 lakh, was a sizeable investment for a family with no sporting background. For Niraj, it was an investment in a dream that had taken shape after he was introduced to shooting through the National Cadet Corps (NCC).

Niraj first picked up a rifle at the age of 14 in 2014. His father, a retired Army officer, had enrolled him in the NCC at school with the hope that it would eventually help his son pursue a career in the armed forces.

Sport was not new to Niraj. He had played kabaddi, table tennis and basketball during his school years, but shooting soon emerged as the discipline that fascinated him most. Through the NCC, he was introduced to the 50m Rifle Prone event and began participating in Inter-Battalion and Inter-Group competitions. As medals followed, his interest gradually turned into a serious ambition.

By the time he reached the pre-national level, Niraj had begun to see shooting as more than just a sport. He started dreaming of building a career around it, with an Olympic medal becoming his long-term target. Getting his parents to share that belief, however, was another matter.

With no sportsperson in the family, his parents were understandably wary of the uncertainty surrounding a sporting career. Shooting also required expensive equipment, making the decision even more difficult. Niraj knew that he first had to demonstrate that his ambition was more than youthful enthusiasm.

The NCC provided him with a rifle until his first national competition, but he would need his own equipment thereafter. At one point, Niraj started teaching younger NCC cadets, using the final 15-20 minutes of their training sessions to practice himself.

He also competed with rented rifles, but soon discovered the limitations of trying to progress without his own equipment. After one such competition, he returned home frustrated and began wondering whether it was time to give up.

“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,” he said.

His parents eventually decided to back their son’s conviction and bought him the rifle. The investment soon began to pay off. Niraj won a junior silver medal at the National Championships in 2016 before claiming junior gold in 2017.

Those performances also brought him closer to another ambition that had taken root 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 told he was too young at the time and would need to return after proving himself with another medal.

He did exactly that. After winning national gold the following year, Niraj joined the Indian Navy through its sports quota in January 2018.

For his parents, his entry into the Navy offered the financial and professional security they had wanted for their son. For Niraj, it meant he could continue chasing his ambitions as a shooter with a stable platform behind him.

Beyond the formal sporting system, Niraj has also benefited from a close circle of people who supported him during the more difficult stages of his career.

His elder brother serves in the Army, while his mother, a homemaker with little exposure to competitive shooting, watched Niraj compete for the first time on television during the 2021 Delhi World Cup, where he reached the final.

What began with a son asking his parents to spend his college fund on a rifle has since become a journey backed by national medals, international competition and a place in India’s elite shooting setup. (IANS)