THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Shooting champion Sidhartha Babu is all fired up. Having just booked a berth in the 2020 Paralympics to be held in Tokyo, the shooter is hoping to clinch the gold and make the country proud. The Thiruvananthapuram native who is currently based in Bengaluru has earned the sixth position at the Para World Shooting Championship held recently in Sydney. The self-taught shooter is in high spirits having shot 616.6 points at the mixed 50-metre prone rifle category.
“I am very excited. It is an honour to represent the nation and it is my first step towards achieving my dream. It is a prestigious event,” says Sidhartha. It is for the first time that Sidhartha is representing the country in Paralympics.He had relied on his old rifle for his stint at the Para World Shooting Championship in Sydney. But the Olympic event calls for better equipment, accessories and training. “My new rifle is arriving, but I need to get new accessories as well,” says Sidhartha.
With just 288 days remaining for the 2020 Paralympics, he hopes to get international standard training. The only training he has ever undergone is under Olympic champion Sergei Martinov, when he got the opportunity for two weeks in 2018. “I want to train under coach Sergei Martinov ahead of the championship,” says Sidhartha.
He says that during his preparation for the last event, he wasn’t shooting daily. “I practised on some days, worked on my physique on some other days and spend the rest on meditation. I trained in a focused manner. That helped in the windy weather at the Sydney event,” he says.
An international rifle shooter, Sidhartha has been setting records. He had earlier broken an eight-year-old record in 50-metre prone rifle in the senior open category and won a gold medal at the 52nd Kerala State Shooting Championship 2019 held in Idukki. With that, he had become the state champion for the fourth year consecutively. “The journey till here has been very tough. One by one, I am surmounting each hurdle. The Kerala government has been supportive, which is very heartening,” says Sidhartha whose highest priority in life is to do something beautiful in the world.