I’m my own challenger: Suruchi Phogat, the teen who owns a statement win over Manu Bhaker Premium

Suruchi Phogat's journey from wrestling to shooting, emerging as a top air pistol shooter in India.

One can well imagine what Suruchi Phogat must have felt when her father took her to a wrestling camp when she was 11. An ex-army man, Inder Singh was crazy about the sport and wanted his daughter to become a wrestler too.

But some six months into wrestling, Suruchi suffered a collar-bone injury and had to quit the sport.

Clearly, the little girl was not cut out for the hard and harsh world of wrestling. Talk to her for a few minutes, and a soft, child-like innocence stands out. Every sentence appears to end in a giggle. It is difficult to picture Suruchi gritting her teeth, grappling with or pinning down wrestlers with all her might.

So it’s likely that she felt a considerable sense of relief when Inder, worried that his daughter would suffer further injuries, pulled her out of wrestling.

“But my dad wanted me to do some sport. One day, my father and I entered a shooting range. And I was very interested to see shooters,” said Suruchi in a chat with The Hindu during the recent National Games in Dehradun.

Hooked to shooting at 14, Suruchi travelled almost 120 km every day between her home in Haryana’s Sasroli and Bhiwani, where she sharpened her skills in the new sport at the Guru Dronacharya Shooting Academy. The to-and-fro journey, by train, took over three hours and brought Suruchi rich rewards.

The 18-year-old is now among the country’s best air pistol shooters in a world that includes double Olympic bronze medallist Manu Bhaker, who, incidentally, trained at the same Bhiwani academy during her early years.