The youngest from 7, Mohammad Lutfi bin Othman, proves to be the pride of the family and the nation being one of the top rifle shooter of Malaysia at only 23 years of age. Mohammad Lutfi bin Othman, or prefers to be called as Lutfi, was born on 6th of November 1994 at Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. Being the youngest in his family, he took on his elder brother and sister’s footstep in joining the shooting sport at the young age of 15 and soon after has achieved many accomplishments. “My parents gave me 120% support in my decision to pursue this sport, and I’m grateful for that”. He said with a confident grin when asked whether his parents approved of his sport of choice.
“I’ve always believed that they have my back, as they had both of my siblings’”. He added
Winning his first medal in 2012 certainly gave him the much needed confidence to continue to sharpen his skills in this line of sports. His commitment certainly was worth all the time and struggle, as he won a Gold medal at the Kuwait Grand Prix games 2015 and received 4th place at the Sea Games on the same year. The following year he wowed crowds again by breaking the national record at the world University game in 2016 and recently he set a new national record for the preliminary round at the Tun Hanif trophy in Subang for the 50m rifle event. As the rule of life goes, there will always be uphills and downhills and for Lutfi, a bitter moment to be remembered was when he was excluded from the national squad for a period of 3 months due to internal misunderstanding. “There was this one time, my name was already registered for World Cup Germany and the flight ticket was already arranged but my name was cancelled out in the last minute and that really was very disappointing”. He continues to explain one of his major downfalls through out his rifle shooting career.
Figure 1 Mohamad Lutfi Othman at the Poland University Championship
Never neglecting his studies, Lutfi is also a Communication student majoring in Broadcasting at Universiti Putra Malaysia. He believes that despite his sports achievements, it is important to have an educational background to fall back on and that this ideology should be held dear everyone. To many, it might be a difficult ordeal having to balance his daily 6 hours trainings and his studies, but Lutfi’s recipe for success is to move at a pace he is comfortable with, to understand just how much he can take to ensure equality between his passion for rifle shooting and studies. “I make sure that I arrange my schedule appropriately, taking into account that I shouldn’t register too many subjects on a given semester so that I can still be able to study while at the same time, train for upcoming competitions”. He added that it is important not to rush everything at once but instead carefully set priorities.
Figure 2 Lutfi, 3rd from right giving his best at the Vietnam Asean Championship
Regarding his future undertakings, Lutfi aims to qualify as a gold medalist for the Commonwealth games 2018, Gold coast, and Asian Games, Jakarta as well as to finish 2020 with a bang by qualifying to the Olympics in Tokyo. His ultimate idol whom always motivates him to be better would be the legendary Niccolo Camprianni, a 3 times Olympic Gold medalist. “I aspire to be like him some day, or who knows? Even better”. He laughs candidly.
This humble yet driven man admits that his favourite past time would be playing video games just like any regular john and to spend quality time with his friend exploring new places to visit. One that might take you aback is that Lutfi also enjoys cooking and also gushes that if this whole rifle shooting career doesn’t work out, he would love to venture into culinary arts and become a chef.
“If you want something, work for it. Give your all to it. Commit to it, don’t leave things half way done. Your aim should be as consistent as your will. And most importantly, you don’t necessarily have to be strong to overcome the challenges in life, but you definitely have to feel strong, it all starts from within. You get your mind straight and everything will work its way”. He imparted his advices to all the youngsters out there who are chasing their dreams.
By: EMBREN BATRISYIA BINTI ZAINOURUDIN 184508
