Bronze in Melbourne, 2006.
Silver in Glasgow, 2014.
Gold in Gold Coast, 2018.
Sanjeev Rajput has won medals of all metals at the Commonwealth Games. The last one, for him, will be special, not just because it’s most valuable but also because he perhaps worked the hardest to get it.
He won the gold medal in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions event with a games record on Saturday to take the Indian shooting team’s medals tally to 16 medals.
(Read more: Follow all the updates on an action-packed day ten for India here.)
Sanjeev was born in a small town of Haryana to a street-food vendor. He went on to join the Indian Navy, where he serves as the Master Chief Petty Officer II. He started his shooting career in 2001.
Three years later, Sanjeev clinched three golds and a silver medal in the 2004 SAF Games.
Sanjeev then won gold at Commonwealth Shooting Championships in Melbourne in 50m rifle 3 positions pairs event in 2005. The year 2006 saw him winning his first CWG medal in his maiden attempt. He later clinched a bronze at the Asian Games in the same year.
The shooter was conferred with the Arjuna Award, India’s highest sporting medal, in 2010.He won double gold in the 50m rifle 3 position event in Commonwealth Shooting Championships in Delhi that year.
The last two years, for Sanjeeev, 37, has been tough.
He was arrested on a rape charge filed by a national level shooter. The woman shooter physically attacked the Olympian while he was participating in the shooting nationals in Pune in December 2016.
Earlier, Rajput had won India its 12th Rio Olympic quota place at the Asian Olympic qualifiers but was left out of the squad at the last minute as he had finished 0.66 points behind 2012 Gagan Narang in the qualifying system.
