Shooting sports in India

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.

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]