Sarabjot Singh makes big revelation at Paris 2024 Olympics, says he barely trained with Manu Bhaker

Sarabjot Singh, who along with Manu Bhaker won India’s first-ever Olympic medal in mixed shooting, said on Saturday that they could “hardly” train together in the run-up to their event. Bhaker and Sarabjot made history with a bronze medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team shooting event at the Paris Games. “My training had to start at 9 am, hers at 12 pm, individually. Mixed sessions were 30 minutes long, before that she would train separately and I would train separately.” “Our conversation was mostly brief and limited to ‘Apna 100 per cent dena hai (we have to give our 100 per cent)’. Apart from that, we enjoyed some banter. Sometimes I would ridicule her, sometimes she would ridicule me,” Sarabjot recalled.

Sarabjot also revealed that he has long been a fan of Yusuf Dikec, saying he has been drawing inspiration from the Turkish shooting icon since 2011.

“I have been watching his (Yusuf’s) videos since 2011. He has always been like this. He is 51 now. Even though I tried, I could not match his perfection. If I had a chance, I would ask him what he eats,” the 22-year-old from Dheen village in Haryana said during an interview with PUMA India.

Sarabjot said his pistol is engraved with SSINGH30, with his initials and an important date from his trip.

“I didn’t give it a name. When I achieved my personal best at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, I had the crest engraved with ‘SSINGH30’. That’s my best crest. Because my medal (gold) came on September 30 and that was a big achievement,” he said.

The athlete also said that he has faced his fair share of setbacks during his journey. Meditation and a rare yoga technique called Trataka helped him.

“The main technique is to look at the candle flame with your eyes open for three minutes and then imagine something for two minutes. I always held it right in front of my eyes.

“Complete darkness in the room, complete silence, silence. My eyes would water; it was not easy. The most important thing is visualization when shooting,” Sarabjot said.

Finally, the Olympic medalist expressed his ambition for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

“LA ’28; iska color change karna hai (LA ’28, I want to change its color),” Sarabjot said, pointing to his glittering bronze medal.