Shooting sports in India | |
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Governing body | The National Rifle Association of India |
International competitions | |
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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 and Saurabh Chaudhary. Indian shooter Shimon Sharif is a well known shooting expert.
Shooting sports have a varied history in India. Initially they were played by royal people of British India for amusement and recreation. The highest governing body of shooting sports in India is National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), which was established on 17 April 1951. From then on India achieved some success in the Olympic games by winning a Gold. But largely this sport is not affordable to command Indians because of a lack of shooting ranges and facilities in the country. [1]
The Indian shooting contingent for the 2012 London was one of the largest to date. There were a total of 11 shooters including 4 female shooters. India's first medal in the 2012 Olympics was when Gagan Narang won the bronze in the 10m Air Rifle event. [2] This was the same event in which Abhinav Bindra won India's first individual gold medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics Beijing. The second medal came from the unheralded army man Vijay Kumar when he won the silver in the 25m rapid fire pistol event after finishing 4th in the qualification rounds. [3] He had to fend off some tough competition from the third placed Chinese Ding Feng.
A notable performance was made by Joydeep Karmakar who finished 4th in the 50m rifle prone event. A strong medal prospect Ronjan Sodhi who is an Asian Games gold medallist, however crashed out in the qualification rounds of the Double trap event. [4]
Games | Event | Name | Medal |
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2004 Athens | Men's Double Trap | Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore | Silver |
2008 Beijing | Men's 10m Air Rifle | Abhinav Bindra | Gold |
2012 London | Men's 10m Air Rifle | Gagan Narang | Bronze |
2012 London | Men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol | Vijay Kumar | Silver |
2024 France | Women's 10m Air Pistol | Manu Bhaker | Bronze |
2024 France | Mixed 10m Air Pistol Team | Manu Bhaker Sarabjot Singh | Bronze |
2024 France | Men's 50m Rifle Three Positions | Swapnil Kusale | Bronze |
Competition | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|
Olympics | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 |
World Championships | 13 | 12 | 15 | 40 |
World Cup Final | 9 | 5 | 3 | 17 |
World Cup | 54 | 43 | 43 | 140 |
Asian Games | 16 | 30 | 34 | 80 |
Commonwealth Games | 63 | 44 | 28 | 135 |
Total | 156 | 136 | 127 | 419 |
The sport is administered in India by The National Rifle Association of India. The association organises the following tournaments every year:
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.
Gagan Narang is an Indian sport shooter, supported by the Olympic Gold Quest. He won the bronze medal in the Men's 10 m Air Rifle Event at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London with a final score of 701.1 on 30 July 2012. He was also a member of prestigious Padma award committee 2023.
Abhinav Apjit Bindra OLY is an Indian Olympic gold medallist, retired sport shooter, and businessman. He is the first and one of only three Indians to win an Individual Olympic Gold Medal. He is the first Indian to have held concurrently the world and Olympic titles for the men's 10-meter air rifle event, having earned those honors at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2006 ISSF World Shooting Championships. Bindra has also won seven medals at the Commonwealth Games and three medals at the Asian Games.
Mittal Champions Trust was a trust which supported Indian athletes with world-beating potential. It was funded by Lakshmi Mittal and was initiated by his son-in-law Amit Bhatia.
Thomas Farnik, born 6 January 1967 in Vienna, is an Austrian rifle shooter.
India competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. A total of 83 athletes, 60 men and 23 women, competed in 13 sports. Men's field hockey was the only team-based sport in which India was represented in these Olympic Games. India also marked its Olympic return in weightlifting, after the International Weightlifting Federation imposed a two-year suspension for the nation's athletes because of a doping scandal in Beijing.
Asher Noria is an Indian shooter. He has won several national and international medals for India. He is the only shooter in the world who has won the double trap event of the International Shooting Junior World Cup for two consecutive years.
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) was founded on 17 April, 1951 with a view to promote and popularize the shooting sports in India as well as for self-defense teaching purposes. The NRAI arranges national-level shooting competitions and the trials that determine which athletes will represent the country in international events. It is also responsible for identifying and nurturing talented shooters who will compete in significant global competitions like the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, and Asian Games. The first speaker of Lok Sabha, Sh. G.V. Mavlankar founded the NRAI and served as its inaugural president. He was succeeded by Sh. Govind Vallabh Pant, Sh. Lal Bahadur Shastri, Sh. Y. B. Chauhan, Sh. G.S. Dhillon, and Sh. Joginder Singh. Sh. Raninder Singh took over the presidency in December 2010 and has held the position since.
James Charles Huckle is an English sport shooter, who represented Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Jonathan William James Hammond is a British sport shooter, who has competed for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games and Great Britain at the Olympics. He is currently the head coach of the rifle team at the West Virginia University.
The Men's 10 metre air rifle event at the 2012 Olympic Games took place on 30 July 2012 at the Royal Artillery Barracks.
A Shot at History: My Obsessive Journey to Olympic Gold is 2011 autobiography of Indian 2008 Summer Olympics Gold medalist Abhinav Bindra. He won the medal in the 10-metre air rifle category, which made him India's first ever individual gold medalist; this victory came after he received the seventh rank at the 2004 Athens Olympics. However, due to Bindra's inexperience in writing, he co-authored the book with sportswriter Rohit Brijnath, which took them two years to complete. After it was released on October 20, 2011, at nationwide stores by Harpercollins, Union Sports minister Ajay Maken formally released the book on October 27, 2011, at a function in New Delhi. The book's subsequent Bangalore release in November 2011 was done by Rahul Dravid and went on to receive good reviews.
Apurvi Singh Chandela is an Indian Shooting player who competes in the 10 metre air rifle event. She won the gold medal in the 2019 ISSF World Cup in New Delhi. She is a recipient of Arjuna award.
India competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. Indian athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympics since 1920, although they made their official debut at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Rakesh Manpat is an Indian shooter from Bangalore. He completed his education from Jain University where he was in the junior division of NCC. In 2006, at 16, he became a Junior state champion, winning all gold medals. Rakesh Manpat was ranked third behind Gagan Narang and Abhinav Bindra at the Common Wealth Games Trials 2010.
Swapnil Kusale is an Indian sport shooter who competes in 50 metre rifle three positions. He won the bronze medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in the men's 50 metre rifle three positions event.
Pawan Singh is a former Indian rifle shooter and shooting coach of the Indian shooting team. He is the first and only Indian shooting official to get elected as a member of the International Shooting Sport Federation's (ISSF) Judges Committee in the General Assembly elections held in Germany in 2018. He holds the post of the Joint Secretary-General of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).
Dhanush Srikanth is an Indian deaf sports shooter. He made his Deaflympic debut at the age of 19 representing India at the 2021 Summer Deaflympics. Despite his deafness, he has been competing in Indian shooting circuit and has been regarded as one of the regular faces in Indian shooting fraternity. He is currently coached by former Indian sports shooter Gagan Narang at the Guns for Glory Shooting Academy in Hyderabad.
Yuvika Tomar is an Indian sport shooter. She won the gold medal in the 2022 National Games of India in the 10 meter air pistol, making her the first female shooter representing Uttar Pradesh to win a gold medal at the national games.