India was represented at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne by a 270-member strong contingent comprising 183 sportspersons and 77 officials. 2004 Summer Olympics silver medalist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore was the flag bearer for India.
Sushma Singh is an Indian shooter who won a gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, earning 1140 points, with her partner Saroja Kumari Jhuthu. She competes in the 25-meter shooting events and has held the national record for 25-metre shooting event from 2002 to 2003. She was inspired by Jaspal Rana, her older brother and a shooting champion himself, to take up the sport.
Samaresh Jung is an Indian sport shooter. He is an air pistol specialist. At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, he won two gold medals, in the men's free pistol pairs and in the open event of 25 m standard pistol pairs, both in partnership with Jaspal Rana. He contested in the 10 m air pistol and 50 m pistol events at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, but failed to reach the finals in both events.
Ronak Pandit is an Indian sport shooter. He won gold medal in the Men's 25m Standard Pistol (Pairs) with Samaresh Jung at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. He is married to Indian shooter Heena Sidhu and has a daughter named Reyah. He is also the coach of Indian pistol team preparing for Tokyo Olympics.
Honorary Captain Vijay Kumar Sharma, AVSM, SM is an Indian sport shooter. He won the silver medal in the individual 25 metre rapid fire pistol event at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Kumar hails from Barsar village of Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh and is a retired Subedar Major in the Dogra Regiment Indian Army, who was later promoted to Honorary Captain Rank. Vijay Kumar is supported by the Olympic Gold Quest initiative. He is the only Indian to have won a medal at 25m rapid Fire Pistol. He has been posted at Indian Army Marksmanship Unit (AMU) Mhow since 2003 where he is being coached by the Russian Pavel Smirnov.
India has competed in all except four editions of the Commonwealth Games; starting at the second Games in 1934. India has also hosted the games once, in 2010. The most successful event for India in these games is shooting.
Rahi Jeevan Sarnobat is a female athlete from India who competes in the 25 metre pistol shooting event. She won her first gold medal at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India. She is the first woman to win a gold medal in shooting at the Asian Games for India – she won the gold at the 2018 Jakarta Palembang Asian Games in the women's 25 metre pistol event. She won two gold medals in 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, the first of the two golds in coming in the 25 metre pistol pair event with Anisa Sayyed. She had previously won gold in the 25 metre pistol event at the 2008 Youth Commonwealth Games, which were held in India.
Subedar Gurpreet Singh is an Indian sports shooter. He won two gold medals in shooting events at the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in India. He paired up with Vijay Kumar to win a gold in the Men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (Pairs) on 7 October 2010. On the same day, he and Omkar Singh won another gold medal in the Men's 10m Air Pistol (Pairs). He also won an individual bronze in Men's 25m rapid fire pistol (Singles) at the event. He hails from and is currently serving the Indian army.
Heena Sidhu is an Indian sport shooter. On 7 April 2014, Sidhu became the first Indian pistol shooter to reach number one in world rankings by the International Shooting Sport Federation. In 2013, Sidhu became the first Indian pistol shooter to win a gold medal in an ISSF World Cup finals when she won the 10-metre air pistol event. In 2014, Sidhu was the World record holder in the 10-metre air pistol event with a final score of 203.8. Sidhu is right handed and is right eye dominant.
Shooting is an important Olympic sport in India. Of India's 41 Olympic medals, seven have come from shooting, including a gold by Abhinav Bindra in the 2008 Olympics. Indian shooters who have excelled at international events include Abhinav Bindra, Jaspal Rana, Jitu Rai, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Vijay Kumar, Gagan Narang, Apurvi Chandela, Ronjan Sodhi, Anjali Bhagwat, Heena Sidhu, Shreyasi Singh, Manu Bhaker, Avani Lekhara, Mona Agarwal, Anisa Sayyed, Rahi Sarnobat, Anantjeet Singh Naruka, and Saurabh Chaudhary. Indian shooter Shimon Sharif is a well known shooting expert.
Narayan Singh Rana is an Indian politician and member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Rana was a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council from the Garhwal Division in Uttarakhand. He is father and first coach of an Indian shooter Jaspal Rana. He was first sports minister of the Uttarakhand from 2000 to 2002. He also served Indo-Tibetan Border Police in 1967 and served in Jammu and Kashmir during the 1971 war and was also selected in the Special Protection Group in 1985. He also trains young shooter at Jaspal Rana Shooting Academy.
Manu Bhaker is an Indian sport shooter. She has won 2 medals at the Olympics, 21 medals at the World Championships and World Cup, 1 medal at Commonwealth Games, and 7 medals at the Asian Games and Asian Championships. Bhaker won the bronze medal in the 10m pistol event at the 2024 Paris Olympics and became the first Indian woman shooter to win an Olympics medal. She won another bronze in the 10m pistol mixed team event, thus becoming the first Indian to win two medals in a single Olympic Games.
Anish Bhanwala is an Indian pistol shooter who competes in the 25 meter rapid fire pistol, 25 meter pistol, and 25 meter standard pistol events. He has been a part of the Indian shooting team since 2017. He represented India at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, 2018 Asian Games, ISSF Junior World Championship 2017 (Suhl), Commonwealth Shooting Championships 2017 (Brisbane), World Shooting Championships 2018 and numerous ISSF Senior and Junior World Cups and South Asian Games, Kathmandu.
Adarsh Singh is an Indian sport shooter who competes in the 25 meter rapid fire pistol and 10 meter air pistol. He won silver at the ISSF World Cup 2021(New Delhi) in the 25m Rapid Fire Men Team Event. He has also won Gold at South Asian Games 2019 and Bronze at Asian Shooting Championship the same year . Recently he has added a Bronze Medal to his Tally at the Asian Games 2022.
Saurabh Chaudhary is an Indian sport shooter. He won the gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games in 10 m air pistol and became the youngest Indian gold medalist to do so. He has won gold medals and set a new world record at the Junior World Cup. He has won gold medals at the World Championships, World Cup, Youth Olympic Games, Asian Games and Asian Championships. He broke his own world record with a score of 245.5 and claimed gold in junior men's 10m air pistol at the 2018 World Championships.
Amit Sheoran is a pistol shooting coach, who also competed at a national level, He had to leave shooting due to the death of his father. He has produced several national and international-level Indian pistol shooters. He has coached Saurabh Chaudhary.
Esha Singh is an Indian sport shooter. She became the youngest national champion in the 10 meter air pistol in 2018 at the age of 13. Besides 10 meter air pistol, she also competes in 25 meter standard pistol and 25 meter pistol events.
Rhythm Sangwan is an Indian sport shooter who usually competes in 10 meter air pistol and 25 meter pistol. She has won medals in Shooting World Cups and Shooting Championship at junior as well as at senior level.
Sarabjot Singh is an Indian sport shooter who specializes in the 10 m air pistol. He is an Olympic bronze medalist having won the medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics alongside Manu Bhaker.
Arjun Singh Cheema is an Indian sport shooter from Punjab. He competes in the 10m air pistol discipline. He was part of the Indian shooting team that won the 10m air pistol team gold at the 2022 Asian Games, Hangzhou, China.
