How Asian Games champion Sift Kaur is an inspiration for NEET aspirants via shooting route

Chandigarh: Sift Kaur Samra's first dream was to crack the NEET exam – an entrance test for admission to MBBS and BDS colleges across India – and she did it too with support from her national gold in shooting. She got a seat in MBBS under the sports quota in 2021.

But after she secured admission in the MBBS first year at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College in her hometown of Faridkot, Sift started living another dream – to excel in shooting on the world's top stages. And, within no time, her shooting dreams started crossing paths with her medical studies, and eventually, she decided to leave her MBBS for her love for shooting.

This time too, she hit the bull's eye, and on Wednesday, the 22-year-old shooter from Punjab gave India its first individual gold in the ongoing Hangzhou Asian Games.

Sift clinched the top honours in the 50m Rifle 3 Position, and hours before her individual pursuit, she, along with Ashi Chouksey and Manini Kaushik, won team silver.

Sift won individual gold with a world record of 469.6 points. China's Zhang Qiongyue scored 462.3 for silver, while India's Ashi with a score of 451.9 won bronze.

“It is a great achievement, and the way she shot in her Asian Games debut, first creating a new national record and then breaking the Asian Games and World record in the final, is remarkable. I am delighted and hope that her Asian Games glory will inspire youngsters to excel in sports,” says the proud father, Pawandeep Singh.

“I met Sift when she had just started the sport during the state championship at Badal in 2017, and after that, she shot with me in the nationals during my last years of participation in the domestic circuit. She is very focused, and confidence is the key to success. She has the ability to analyze the score while shooting in the competition, and that too without taking any pressure. Generally, if shooters start calculating the score during the match, they come under pressure, and it affects the outcome,” says Olympian rifle shooter Avneet Sidhu, who is the first women rifle shooter from Punjab to excel at the international arena. 

“Asian Games individual gold is a great achievement, and I can say that this is just the beginning for Sift, and she has a long way to go,” adds Sidhu, who is an Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Counter-Intelligence, Punjab Police.

Sift is just three years old in the international circuit and has already qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics. With her showing in the Hangzhou Asian Games, she has proved that she is ready to dominate in the big league.

With no 50-meter shooting range in Faridkot, her father constructed a range on their residential premises. However, due to the specific ammunition used, the 50-meter range required permission under the Arms and Ammunition Rules and was not allowed in residential complexes. As a result, Sift could only engage in dry training at her place, and the majority of her shooting practice took place outside her hometown.

Even for her sport, she sacrificed her MBBS dreams.

“It was also my dream to see Sift becoming a doctor, so initially, one of her reasons for opting for shooting was that it would help her get admission in MBBS under the sports quota. During her Class 11th and 12th, as there's no range for 50m in Faridkot, so we used to travel to Chandigarh on weekends for training and were back on Monday to attend the coaching classes for the medical exams. She struck the balance, and with the help of her gold in nationals, she got admission in MBBS in Faridkot,” recalls the father. 

“But gradually, shooting took the front seat, and she became a regular feature in the Indian squad, touring for significant days for tournaments and camps. The medical college was not ready to accommodate her, and she had to miss her first-year exams. It was during the national championship in Bhopal last year in December that Sift decided to leave MBBS and concentrate entirely on shooting. She took admission in the Bachelor of Physical Education and Sports at Guru Nanak Dev University.”

Though Sift couldn't continue with her MBBS studies, she has inspired youngsters to pursue their dreams of medical studies. Taking a cue from her combination of academics and sports, four youngsters from her close-knit family in Faridkot pursued shooting with the aim of getting a seat in the medical college under the sports quota. “Four of our family kids, including my son, have got admission in the medical colleges of Punjab under the sports quota this year,” says Pawandeep Singh, who is an agriculturalist and involved in the business of rice mills. 

“My son is a national medalist in shooting, and he wants to continue with the sport after joining MBBS. But I have told him to concentrate only on MBBS, as I don't want to keep him hanging between the two options. I don't want him to leave MBBS for shooting."