Shooting was India’s saving grace at the 2024 Olympic games. After the debacles of 2016 and 2021, shooting brought home 3 medals in a rather lackluster campaign.
As the new Olympic cycle started, the attention was on how we can substantiate last cycle’s results or even better them. Truth be told, the period from 2021-2024 was a quite productive period for Indian sports shooting. Bright prospects like Manu Bhaker, Elavenil Valarivan and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar further strengthened their credentials and many exciting talents like Rudrankksh Patil, Rhythm Sangwan, Sarabjot Singh and Esha Singh emerged.
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Even though we couldn’t get the shinier medals at Paris, the nature of the sport is such that the nobody knows what the future holds. Well, everything except the fact that the Chinese will do well whenever they participate and the Koreans will come to the party at the big events.
As the 2025 season came to a close with the ISSF world cup finals in Doha, let us look back at the gains or losses for Indian shooting across the various ISSF events- 4 world cups(WC) (Buenos Aires, Lima, Munich and Ningbo), World championships (WCh) (Cairo) and the world cup finals(WCF); I have included the Asian championships from Shymkent, even though it is not technically part of ISSF.
For the sake of perspective, I will limit the discussion to individual Olympic events. Most of the focus will obviously be on the rifle and pistol events. I would be arbitrarily rating the performance in each event as- Good, above average, average, below average or bad.
Men’s 10m air rifle: Rudrankksh Patil and Arjun Babuta established themselves as the two best air rifle shooters in 2025. They were right up there in the qualification rounds of the 1st two WC of the year and performed well in the WCh as well. RP won gold at Buenos Aires and AB won silver at Lima- missed gold by a whisker vs GOAT, Sheng Lihao.
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As the cut-off for qualification to finals keeps going up slightly every year, these two have managed to be a cut above the other Indian competitors like Kiran Ankush Jadhav and Uma Mahesh Maddineni. Divyansh Panwar and Sandeep Singh (who surprised everyone by making the 2024 Olympic squad) had forgettable seasons. RP and AB did brilliantly at the WCh as well, even though they could not bag any medals.
Rating: Average
Men’s 50m rifle 3-positions: This was one of our stronger events from the previous Olympic cycle with APS Tomar and Swapnil Kusale. Hopes were high in this marathon event, traditionally dominated by the Europeans. Swapnil probably could not keep up with the hype that comes with an Olympic medal and had an underwhelming season. APS Tomar was by far the brightest spark with silvers at the WCh and WCF; he was not to be discouraged by the lack of medals at the WCs. Chain Singh, Niraj Kumar and Kiran Jadhav were there and thereabouts, reaching a WC final or two.
Chain Singh was the lone medalist in the WCs in this category with a bronze at Buenos Aires. If not for APST’s late flourish, it could have ended up as a poor year.
Rating: Average
Women’s 10m air rifle: This was such an unpredictable event in the last cycle with new talents like Ramita, Nancy and Sonam Maskar emergingon the heels of Elavenil Valarivan and Mehuli Ghosh. While we had at least one shooter reaching the final stage of the WCs or WCh, performances in the finals were not impressive except for Elavenil at Munich and Cairo- both bronze medals. In fact, Elavenil could have won Gold or Silver in both events- she was leading at around the 18th/ 20th shots.
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Meghana Sajjanar won a bronze at Ningbo in a low scoring final. Elavenil managed to reach the WCF but would be bitterly disappointed with her performance at Doha. Others in this category would need to do a bit of soul searching- scores in women’s air rifle are reaching unimaginable levels and even a minor blip can put one out of contention.’
Rating: Below average
Women’s 50m rifle 3-positions: Sift Kaur Samra was one of the best bets to win an Olympic medal, but that day in Paris turned out to be one of her worst days. She must have been itching to correct the Olympic discrepancy and in 2025, she showed glimpses of her best form at Buenos Aires (gold) and Munich (bronze). Anjum Moudgil, Ashi Chouksey, Manini Kaushik and Shriyanka Sadangi must have hoped for better seasons than what transpired. Performances in the WCh and WCF were very disappointing.
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SKS had Paris 2024-like scores in Cairo and Doha and must be getting bad flashbacks. On her day, SKScan reach astronomical scores, and I feel a lot depends on her kneeling scores- when she does well in kneeling, she usually consolidates to reach the final round. Hope she makes the necessary technical and mental adjustments because I really feel, she can achieve more special stuff.
Rating: Below average
Men’s 10m air pistol: We do not think anyone has dominated a category as much as Hu Kai has, in 10m air pistol in 2025. 4/4 world cup golds, an Asian championships gold and 1st place in the world cup finals. Newcomer Samrat Rana had the privilege of being the only shooter to beat Hu Kai in an international competition in 2025, edging him to second place in the Cairo world championships. Samrat’s WCh gold is arguably the shooting performance of the year- not just from an Indian perspective. The most consistent Indian male air gun shooter of the year was however Varun Tomar.
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He reached the finals of all international events in 2025- 3 WCs, Asian Ch, WCh and WC finals. He could muster only a bronze- from the WCh, no else but his consistency in the qualification phase was remarkable. Crowd favourite, Saurabh Chaudhary showed glimpses of a comeback by winning a bronze at the Lima world cup- we continue to wait for a return of his 2019-21 form. It was unfortunate to see promising talents like Shiva Narwal have a slip in form. Olympic medalist, Sarabjot, also had a year to forget. With finalists in all world cups and a WCh gold, this category was one of our best in 2025.
Rating: Above average
Women’s 10m air pistol: If not for Hu Kai, Suruchi Inder Singh would have been world’s best shooter of 2024. Her performances, particularly in finals were exhilarating, consistently hitting numbers more than 243- much higher than her male counterparts. She finished with 3 WC and a WC finals golds- the best Indian performance of 2024 by a distance. Her only blips came at the Asian and World championships, where she finished just outside the finals’ places.
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Even at these two events, India did not too badly. At the Asian championships, Esha Singh delivered a clutch performance to win gold. At the Cairo WCh, we had two finalists- Manu and Esha, but they both could not deliver a medal. Aside from Suruchi, Manu and Esha had decent years and with Sainyam and Palak waiting in the wings, India’s women’s 10m air pistol is stacked and offers the most promise in the coming Olympic cycle.
Rating: Good
Men’s 25m rapid fire pistol: This is the most technical and costliest category among the rifle/ pistol disciplines and is traditional dominated by the Chinese and Europeans (mostly Germans and French). So any medal is commendable in my opinion. Anish has been our best rapid-fire shooter in the past 5 years, and he continued his good form in 2025- he bagged 3 international medals- all silver at the Asian championships, World championship and world cup finals. In the world cup events, India’s performance was average, apart from Vijayveer Sidhu’s gold at Buenos Aires.
In RFP, 2025 was the best year for India in the past decade. In my opinion, the same yardstick should not be used to judge RFP and the air gun categories- hope Anish and Vijayveer can keep up their training standards and discipline for the next 3 years.
Rating: Above average
Women’s 25m pistol: This category has flown under the radar in 2025- may be because this event happens towards the fag end of competitions. If medals were the only measure of performance, women’s sports pistol was not great. But the consistency of Esha and Manu in qualifying for finals should be commended.
Both Manu and Esha reached 5 finals each- out of the 6 competitions they entered- excellent indeed. Manu would be disappointed for not winning a single medal. Esha won 2 medals- a world championships bronze and a silver at the Buenos Aires WC. Simranpreet Kaur Brar had an up and down year- she reached the finals only twice but won medals on both occasions. SKB had the year’s best finals performance– at the world cup finals- a very impressive 41/50 score.
Rating: Above average
Notable performances in Shotgun:
- In men’s trap, veteran Zoravar Singh Sandhu offered the bright moments- bronze medal at the Athens world championships was the highlight for India in 2025. Bhowneesh Mendiratta won a silver at the Asian championships but had a poor year otherwise. Prithviraj Tondaiman and Lakshay and Kynan Chenai had forgettable years.
- Women’s trap has been tough to follow as a fan over the years. In 2025, Neeru offered a silver lining, winning gold at the Asian championships. She was the only Indian to reach a WC final, when she finished sixth at Lonato.
- Lot was expected of Anantjeet Singh Naruka in skeet. His performance was below par at the world events, but his redeeming moment came at the Asian championships, where he won gold. Even there, his qualification score was 119, well below what is required for qualification at the world level.
- Raiza Dhillon could muster a finals place at the Lima world cup. Other prominent shooters in this category- Ganemat Sekhon and Maheshwari Chauhan will have better years than 2025 in the future.
