Mumbai: “Shooting is boring. It puts us to sleep and we don’t enjoy it. The shooters are not even athletic,” has been the common saying among majority of Indians for years. But there is one marksman who is fitter than many. Why? It is because his career started with badminton and bike rallying. Meet Prakash Nanjappa, one of the team bronze medallists for 10m Air Pistol in the recently concluded Asian Games at Incheon.
A one of a kind sportsperson, Nanjappa is also respected in the Olympic fraternity for his determination and mental strength. He left the sport in 2004 for a software engineering job in Canada and stayed there for five years before making a comeback.
“There was no money, no sponsors and unfortunately, Olympic Gold Quest (which supports him now) wasn’t there. So I had to choose between job and shooting and I chose what was giving me money,” said Nanjappa, who started shooting in 1999 and got a chance in the Indian team in 2003.
“But yes, shooting came much later. My first choice of sport was badminton. I was a state level player and also one of the first ones to get selected to train at Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bangalore. I have played with Prakash Sir and Vimal Kumar,” he added.
But a multiple ligament tear crashed pulled Nanjappa out of the badminton court and threw him in the middle of a biking track. “But even there, I hurt my knee in one of the rallies and then came the idea of trying out the rifle,” said the 38-year-old, who also happens to be the son of PN Papanna, a national level shooter.
“It was actually due to my father I took up the rifle. I had made fun of him calling it a sleepy sport and he challenged me at a state meet where I ended up winning a gold in 1999,” added Nanjappa.
So how did he get back after staying out of touch for five years? In 2009, his father won a state medal and inspired him. “He was 59 and he told me if he could achieve what he did in his age, why can’t I? And then, I bought a pistol and started doing what I love though I was well settled with my own apartment, vehicle and a stable job,” said Nanjappa.
He won two gold medals in the Canadian Airgun Grand Prix and one at the national championship in Canada where he equalled the record of their national shooters.
“They asked me to stay back but I thought if I have to represent a country in the international level, it has to be India,” he said.
In the last one year, Nanjappa won three medals. Apart from the team event in Asian Games, he won bronze in 10m Air Pistol in ISSF World Cup 2013 and silver in the same category in Commonwealth Games 2014.
