CHENNAI: When Navneet Singh won lawn bowls silver in men's fours event at 2022 Commonwealth Games, it was a massive turning point for him and the sport in India. Till the two medals in 2022, India had not finished on the podium at the CWG in lawn bowls. He was a part of the elite group who made history.
While things have changed for better in the four years since, but not as much as Navneet would have hoped. A trained pilot, Navneet had tried to break into the aviation sector since Covid, but had little luck. In the time since, he turned his focus to lawn bowls and eventually had his moment of glory in 2022. He continued to pile on more medals in the sport across events, but the rewards and recognition was not the same as some of the others for the Delhi athlete. After years of toil, he finally secured a job as a commercial pilot in a private airline last year.
Now in Glasgow for the CWG 2026 event, Navneet has gone on unpaid leave to represent the country. "Because I am representing the country, they gave me leave, unpaid, but they were helpful to sanction my leave," he told this daily from Glasgow. "If you balance between two things, it's not easy but it's your love and liking for the sport and your profession which drives you to go that extra bit and we are still young so we can definitely do whatever is in our potential," he added.
The struggle, since then, has been about managing his flying schedule while also continuing to train and compete at the events. Earlier this April, he won two gold medals at Asian Lawn Bowls Championship in New Delhi, helping India secure the Overall Men’s Champion Trophy, Overall Team Trophy, and Challenge Trophy. "The Bowling Federation of India are doing as much as they can but as an individual player it's not great with respect to the state association because it comes down to the state not to the national body," said the Delhi athlete, who will be competing in the men's pairs category at Glasgow along with Dinesh Kumar from Jharkhand.