Top 10 performers in Indian shooting in 2023

Published at :December 29, 2023 at 5:07 PM

Modified at :January 14, 2024 at 12:37 AM

(Courtesy : NDTV Sports/IndianShooting.com/The Indian Express)

India secured a record 22 medals Asian Games 2023.

India has a history of producing exceptional talents in shooting. To name a few Abhinav Bindra, Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Gagan Narang, and Vijay Kumar have brought laurels to the nation by raising the Indian flag at the prestigious stage of the Olympics.

Renowned as a dominant force, India’s new wave of shooters are continuously striving to establish their own legacy by achieving historic milestones. This year, these emerging talents delivered impressive performances at prominent events like the World Championships, Asian Games, and Asian Shooting Championships.

In recognition of their stellar international achievements, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has identified the top ten shooters of 2023. Let’s explore the achievements of these Indian shooting stars who stunned the sporting community and created a significant impression in the world of sports shooting.

Here are the top 10 performers in Indian Shooting in 2023:

Mehuli Ghosh

One of India’s prominent rifle shooters, Mehuli Ghosh, bagged India’s first Olympic quota in the year 2023. She accomplished this by winning the bronze medal in the women’s 10m air rifle event after she shot 229.8 in the final behind China’s Jiayu Han (251.4) and Zhilin Wang (250.2), narrowly defeating compatriot Tilottama Sen.

Earlier, the Commonwealth Games 2018 silver medalist shooter had qualified for the finals after topping the qualification stage with a whopping 634.5. With this, Mehuli became the fourth shooter to earn a Paris Olympics quota for India.

Akhil Sheoran

Akhil Sheoran shone as one of the star performers on the international platform in shooting for India in 2023. At the ISSF World Championships 2023, the 28-year-old secured a bronze medal in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions event to add to India’s medal haul. Since the World Championships also provided Olympic quotas to the shooters, Akhil also earned an Olympic quota, which was India’s second overall in this event.

Earlier, Swapnil Suresh Kusale, with his fourth-place finish at the ISSF World Championships 2022, had achieved the first quota for India in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions event. Besides this, he also won a team gold medal alongside Swapnil and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, at the prestigious Asian Games 2022, where the trio also established a world record with a combined score of 1769.

Sarabjot Singh

In the pistol event, Sarabjot Singh was one of India’s brightest prospects in 2023. At the ISSF World Cup 2023 Bhopal leg, Sarabjot claimed the top position with a dominant 16-0 win over Ruslan Lunev of Azerbaijan in the gold-medal playoff. At the ISSF World Cup in Baku, he alongside Divya TS, got past Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Damir Mikec and former world champion Zorana Arunovic by 16-14 to win another gold in the mixed 10m air pistol.

However, his biggest achievement in 2023 came at the Asian Shooting Championships 2023. There, he not only bagged the bronze medal for the nation but also earned India’s first Olympic quota in a pistol event. The Indian shooter finished third with a total of 221.1 points, behind China’s Zhang Yifan and Liu Jinyao, who shot 243.7 and 242.1 to win gold and silver, respectively.

Anish Bhanwala

At the Asian Shooting Championships 2023, Anish Bhanwala showcased remarkable prowess as he collected the bronze medal, scoring 28/35 in the final of the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol. However, the good news for the nation had arrived even before the commencement of the final as Anish had already secured India its first quota in this event with his qualification for the medal match.

This was because the eventual gold and silver medalists Japan’s Dai Yoshioka and South Korea’s Lee Gunhyeok had previously obtained Olympic quotas. While the other three finalists were from China, which had already achieved the maximum two quotas per country criteria. At the ISSF World Cup Final 2023, Anish bagged the bronze, shooting 27 out of 35, to become the first Indian to clinch a medal in the men’s 25m Rapid Fire event in the history of the ISSF World Cup Final.

Rajeshwari Kumari

In 2023, Rajeshwari Kumari distinguished herself as India’s top trap shooter in her discipline. At the Shooting World Championships 2023, Rajeshwari achieved India’s seventh quota for Paris Olympics 2024. This made her the second Indian woman to ever win an Olympic quota place in the Women’s trap event.

She accomplished it with a fifth-place finish in the final, with 19 hits from the first 30 targets. The trap shooter previously stole the limelight as she scored 120 in the qualification round, beating her previous record of 118, to establish a national record in the women’s trap.

At the Asian Games 2023, Rajeshwari bagged the trap women’s team silver as she repeated her father Randhir Singh’s successful feat which he had achieved back in the 1982 Games winning silver in the men’s trap team event. She ended her remarkable year by winning the gold medal at the National Games 2023 held in Goa.

Tilottama Sen

**Tillomata Sen won bronze at Asian Championships to secure Paris Olympics quota (Courtesy: The Indian Express)**

Although teen sensation Tilottama Sen just began shooting during the COVID-19 pandemic to keep herself occupied, she has become the best young shooter in India at the moment. At the age of just 15, she collected India’s second quota in the women’s 10m air rifle event for the Paris Olympics 2024. She did so by winning the silver medal at the Asian Shooting Championships 2023.

Having shot a 630.5 to finish fourth and qualify for the final stage of the women’s air rifle in Changwon, Tilottama notched up a sensational 252.3 to bag the second place and a quota place. Earlier, at the ISSF World Cup 2023 in Cairo, Egypt, the youngster obtained the bronze medal with a score of 262 in the top eight ranking round as she missed the gold-medal match by the narrowest margin (0.1).

Manu Bhaker

Tokyo Olympian Manu Bhaker began the year with a bronze-medal victory at the ISSF World Cup 2023 in Bhopal. At the Madhya Pradesh State Shooting Academy, the Youth Olympics 2018 gold medalist Manu shot 20 out of 30 in the medal match. She followed it by winning the gold medal in the women’s 25m pistol team event, alongside Esha Singh and Rhythm Sangwan.

It was Manu’s qualification score of 590 that eventually made the difference as India (1759) finished just ahead of China by three points to clinch the gold. However, she was unfortunate to miss out on a medal in the individual event, finishing fifth in the finals.

However, her greatest accomplishment came at the Asian Shooting Championships 2023. Having topped the qualifications in the women’s 25m pistol event, Manu could only manage a 24 in the medal round. Despite a fifth-place finish, Manu grabbed the quota as China grabbed its second quota through Liu Rui, gold medalist, while Iran’s Rostamiyan Haniyeh earned it during the World Championships in Cairo.

Anantjeet Singh Naruka

Owing to his sensational display of shooting at the Asian Games 2023, Anantjeet Singh Naruka rose as India’s prominent shooter in skeet shooting in 2023. Before the finals in Hangzhou, the 25-year-old Ananjeet reaching the final stage was itself considered a huge accomplishment. However, Anantjeet stunned every Indian sports fan through his flawless performance as he landed on the podium with a historic silver medal, shooting 58 out of 60.

On his way to the silver-medal triumph, he defeated Nasser Al-Attiyah, the London Olympics medalist, and just finished behind Kuwait’s Abdullah Al-Rashidi, the multiple World champion and the 2020 Olympics bronze medalist. This was also India’s first-ever silver in this event in the history of the Asian Games. At the Asian Shooting Championships 2023, he once again showed his prowess but missed out on an Olympic quota by finishing fourth and scoring just one point less.

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Sift Kaur Samra

Sift Kaur Samra was undoubtedly one of the best female shooters for India in 2023. At the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, she delivered an outstanding performance, bagging the gold medal in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions event. Sift, who had earlier obtained an Olympic quota for the nation last year, established a new world record and Games record, shooting a whooping 469.6 points as she finished 7.3 points ahead of the silver-medalist Qiongyue Zhang.

With this, the first-year MBBS student Sift etched her name in the history of Indian shooting. Earlier in the year, the 22-year-old had clinched a bronze medal in the ISSF World Cup Bhopal 2023 after shooting 403.9 in the top-eight ranking round. This was also her first individual medal in the World Cup.

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar has solidified his status as one of the best shooters in the nation in 2023. He began his year with a gold medal at the ISSF World Cup 2023 Cairo leg, where he defeated Austria’s Alexander Schmirl by 16-6 in the final. He then followed it with a sensational campaign at the World University Games 2021 in Chengdu, where he collected three gold medals in the men’s 10m air rifle individual and team event, and men’s 50m rifle 3 positions.

At the prestigious Asian Games 2022, Aishwary had a staggering outing as he emerged as India’s most successful athlete, bagging two gold, one silver, and one bronze medal. The two gold medals came in the men’s team – 50m rifle 3 positions and 10m air rifle events. However, his performance was very impressive during the silver medal win in the men’s 50m rifle event as he made a remarkable comeback from fifth place to second

Finally, at the Asian Shooting Championship 2023, Aishwary once again excelled as he won the gold medal, defeating China’s Tian Jiaming by a 0.8 mark. Although the Olympic quotas were up for grabs in the tournament, the 22-year-old shooter from Madhya Pradesh couldn’t bag any since Swapnil and Akhil had previously grabbed the maximum two Olympic quotas in the men’s 50m air rifle 3 positions event.

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