Vijay Kumar , the name which is now on everyone's mouth was unknown till he could win a silver medal for our country in Olympics in shooting, surprisingly he has done well before but not known to many in common wealth games and other events. He won his first medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, he had won 2 gold medals, the individual 25 meter rapid fire pistol competition and the pairs competition in the same event together with Pemba Tamang. The same year, he won a bronze medal in the Asian Games despite actually finishing fourth because of a rule that prevented China from winning all three medals. The next year, he finished second at the Asian Championship in 25 metre center-fire pistol.He also won a silver medal at the 2009 ISSF World Cup Beijing in rapid fire pistol, where he was defeated by Keith Sanderson by 0.1 points.
Mr Kumar hails from Barsar village of Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh and is presently a serving subedar in the Dogra Regiment (16th Battalion) Indian Army. Vijay Kumar is currently supported by the Olympic Gold Quest initiative. He has been posted at Army Marksmanship Unit (AMU) Mhow since 2003 where he is being coached by the Russian Pavel Smirnov.
The sadest part is that he is not even known by most of the Army people, even after winning so many medals for the country he was not acknowledged for the same by the Indian Army, certainly he should have been promoted way back in 2006 for his outstanding achievement. If he had been an high profile person he would have instantly hit the headlines then, but unfortunately his achievement could not make much news.
And now Mr Vijay Kumar is finally welcomed by Indian Army at New Delhi airport after he gave an ultimatum to them that he would quit army as he was not given the credit he deserved. Though it makes me happy he finally would get the accolades he deserved but I would rather stress that these accolades came rather late.
One question that still remains unanswered to me is that Why in India only Actors and Cricketers make a headline and not the deserving people like Vijay Kumar and many others?????
