Loans, jugaad and grit: The story of Suruchi Singh’s World Cup gold

Since childhood, Inder Singh Phogat harbored aspirations of becoming a sportsperson. But life had other plans for him and the army came calling.

But every time Virender Singh Yadav a.k.a Goonga Pahalwan brought home a medal from the Deaflympics, Phogat and the entire village of Sasroli in Jhajjar, Haryana rejoiced.

Inspired, he promised himself that his daughter, Suruchi Singh, would one day become a sportsperson, a wrestler perhaps. 

Fast forward to Tuesday and in distant Buenos Aires, as all Indian eyes were on a certain Manu Bhaker in the women’s 10m Air Pistol event, Suruchi, all of 19-years of age, stunned the shooting world by clinching a gold medal, her first at the ISSF World Cup.

But shooting wasn’t her first calling.

A fierce competitor

With Goonga Pahalwan to emulate, Phogat had Suruchi enrolled in wrestling. “But after 3 months she had a serious collarbone injury. So, we decided to shift her to shooting,” he told The Bridge via telephone.

Both father and daughter did not mind the change, after all, the spirited girl longed to play sport.

“Suruchi wanted to be a sportsperson from a very young age, all she wanted was to play and compete.”

Phogat also observed that while the body took a beating in wrestling, shooting was a ‘game of the mind’ and relied on hand-eye coordination and balance.

“Shooting is also a fair game, there’s no cheating,” he opined.

With the decision made, Suruchi enrolled at the Guru Dronacharya Academy in Bhiwani (incidentally a place where double Olympic-medalist Manu Bhaker also began her shooting journey), 55 km away from Sasroli village.

The academy would impart training lessons, but the equipment was going to be a stumbling block.

A winning mantra

The year was 2019 and having just retired from the Indian Army as a havildar, Phogat had to take out a loan to aid Suruchi’s shooting ambitions.

“After two months of her training at the academy, I bought her first pistol, which cost ₹1,66,000,” he recalled.

The move helped and as her results improved, Phogat took on more loans and two more pistols were purchased.

Daily commutes to the academy became a regular feature - 90 minutes to get there and the same amount of time to return.

Once home, thanks to a desi jugaad, wooden cardboards were set up at a distance of 10m for Suruchi to work with, and the target practice continued.

But the father-daughter duo stuck to the rigor.

They even had a motto between them, “karna hai bas to karna hai aur kuchh hamne karke dikhana hai.”

When Suruchi began excelling and bigger tournaments followed, Phogat began travelling with his daughter.

But on Tuesday, Phogat wasn’t beside her. That said, his words of encouragement were.

A war cry 

“I said beta give your best and be ready too for any challenge. All players are equal,” said Phogat, when asked about his words of advise to his daughter ahead of the final.

Similarly, Suresh Singh, who runs the Guru Dronacharya Academy in Bhiwani, was in constant touch with Suruchi over the telephone.

In addition to strategic inputs, Singh told The Bridge that he had made it a point to check if she was eating the dry snacks that were packed for her trip to Argentina.

"Beta, you have to sleep at night, not during the day and keep your body prepared for the competition," he had told his 19-year old ward before her qualification round.

According to Singh, a special tenet separates Suruchi from the rest.

“She doesn’t care who her competition is. She is very calm, and her mind is also very composed. That’s her strength, and it is this quality that has brought her success.”

Every coach has a war cry for his ward and Singh has one for Suruchi: “Aakhri goli aakhri dushman.”

And it was this motto that kept her in good stead on Tuesday.

When pitted against Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist and mixed team gold medalist Jiang Ranxin, two other Chinese and a Korean shooter in Choo Gaeun, Suruchi held fort.

And when she momentarily slipped to fourth place after an 8.9, she refused to crack, but instead fought back.

“I don’t want silver, only gold, nothing less,” she had once told her coach.

On Tuesday, she stuck to her guns and without a doubt, the world stood up and took notice.