In late 2023, while on holiday abroad, I walked into a shooting range on a whim. The last time I'd held a firearm was 1990 — as a teenager in my school's NCC regiment. I came back to Chennai and took up competitive pistol shooting seriously.
 

Five months later — March 2024 — I was winning gold and silver at Citywide Inter-Club Championships. By July, 6 golds, a silver and a bronze at the Tamil Nadu State Championships. By August, I'd swept the Master Men events at the All-India Open in Goa — triple gold against the country's top performers. By December 2024, I had qualified for four events at the 67th National Shooting Championships — something coaches describe as "extremely rare" even for athletes who have trained from their youth.
 

In Year 2, I achieved "Renowned Shooter" status at the 68th Nationals in all three events I competed in, qualified for India Team Trials in Standard Pistol, and cleared qualification for the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol — an Olympic discipline — at the 69th Nationals.
 

None of this happened by accident. I already understood — at a level most athletes never reach — how the body adapts, how to structure training load, how to fuel precisely for cognitive and physical performance, and how to manage arousal and readiness under competitive pressure. I applied every principle I'd built into my coaching practice directly to my own shooting from day one.
 

I currently train five days a week, 3–4 hours per session. I hold an ISSF D-Licence in Pistol Coaching and am completing my C-Licence. I compete across five events. I turn 50 in December 2026 and am targeting the international circuit.