When 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.
Niraj 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. Now, he is a part of the Indian shooting squad for Asian Games starting in Japan from September 19 onwards.
“I told them, buy me the rifle. I will see the college degree later. First, I have to shoot,” Niraj recalls, saying as quoted by a press release from the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).
A Life-Defining Choice
The rifle cost around Rs 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 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 intention of helping him eventually pursue a career in the armed forces. 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.
The Path to Professional Shooting
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. By the time he reached the pre-national level, Niraj had begun to believe that he could build a career in shooting, and he set himself the long-term goal of winning an 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 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 would have to arrange his own equipment thereafter. At one point, Niraj 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,” he says.
Turning Pro: A Rifle and a Navy Career
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.
For his parents, his entry into the Navy provided the security they had always wanted for their son. For Niraj, it provided the platform he needed to continue pursuing shooting at the highest level. “They told me that now my future is secure from their side and that I could fly as high as I wanted,” Niraj says.
Evolving as an Athlete
His transition into the 50m Rifle 3 Positions event brought another challenge. Having started his career in the prone event, Niraj 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 single 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.
The Support Structure
His progress eventually took him to the international stage, including a junior medal at the Asian Championships in 2019. Over the years, several coaches and senior athletes have contributed to his development, with foreign coach Thomas Farnik, who joined the Indian squad in 2022, emerging 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,” he says.
Niraj also points to the wider support available to athletes through the federation. “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.”
He believes that this structured support has given him and other Indian shooters a clear pathway to aim higher. “The federation has supported us very well, and it has given us a proper pathway towards our goal of winning an Olympic medal.”
Niraj’s 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 his 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 who had little exposure to competitive shooting, saw Niraj 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.