Shooting at Asian Games 2023 review: Indian shooters deliver record-breaking performance in Hangzhou

India rang down the curtains on the 19th edition of the Asian Games with 107  medals, its best-ever haul at the quadrennial showpiece. An overwhelming 22 of these hallowed metal discs — seven gold, nine silver, and six bronze — came from shooting.

Although often labelled the most unpredictable sport, Indian shooting’s credentials have never come under a shadow of doubt at multi-discipline events like the Asiad (where it now has 80 podium finishes) and the Commonwealth Games. In fact, the sport has given India the most medals at CWG — 135. 

The only exception, though, is the Olympics, where the country has bagged only four medals, and what transpires there is a discussion for another day.

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China, which won 29 medals in Hangzhou 2022, has topped the AG shooting tally in every edition since Bangkok 1978. However, this is the first time it has found its not-so-favourite neighbour breathing down its neck. Having come second, this is historically India’s best standing in the classic joust for continental supremacy.

Not just that, India has also surpassed its previous best medal count of 14 in shooting (three gold, five silver and six bronze), achieved at Doha 2006. In the previous edition at Jakarta-Palembang, the team had only managed to win nine medals.

The punctilious Chinese will also be aware of the fact that the Indian shooters broke as many as 18 records, including three world records, in their backyard. 

Although the momentous achievement does call for celebrations, the Indian shooting contingent would know better than to rest on its laurels. For, of the 22 medals the country bagged, 11 have come from events that aren’t a part of the Olympic programme. They weren’t on the schedule of the previous Asian Games as well.

These 11 events — described by the International Shooting Sport Federation’s (ISSF) general regulation 3.3.2.3 as ‘Team’ events for “three (3) members of the same gender” — award medals based on the sum total of the scores of each of the participating shooters in the individual qualification round.

The women’s and men’s team programmes in 10m air rifle and 10m air pistol aren’t even mandatory events in all ISSF Championships, according to ‘Annex 2’ of the rules published on September 22, 2020, by the shooting world body.

The document states that it is binding to include 10m AR and AP team events in ISSF World Cups and Grand Prix meant for “10m rifle/pistol events only”. That means if there is a scheduled World Cup for all disciplines, the organisers may choose not to include the men’s and women’s 10m air rifle and pistol team events in the roster.

Similarly, the men and women’s team events in trap and skeet only need to be compulsorily organised if it is a separate World Cup meant for these two disciplines.

All World Championships, however, need to have men and women’s team events.

So, even though the talented trio of Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Divyansh Singh Panwar helped India win its first gold medal of Asian Games 2023 with a world record 10m air rifle team score of 1893.7, its significance in the build-up to the 2024 Olympics is largely vague.

While one may say these medals are morale-boosting, especially after the horrors of Tokyo, another may refute that these may only pave the way for complacency to creep in.

It may be sagacious to point out that it puts India’s bench strength in focus. According to former chief national rifle coach Joydeep Karmakar, the achievement eliminates what has come to be known as the ‘star culture’, where the media limelight tends to shine on a select few.

He says, “We should rather be proud when the aggregate of three shooters is better than the trio of other countries. It directly shows the strength of that sport rather than depending on a single star-oriented perspective. Let’s appreciate the growth of an average shooter in our country and not look for a single dependable star. This achievement is holistic.”

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This theory may be a tad flawed as well, if we consider how China has historically fielded its athletes in the Olympics.

The East Asian nation is careful not to show its hand to competitors during the Olympic cycle, thereby never sending its complete ‘A’ team to any event in the lead-up to the Olympics. Take Yang Qian, Tokyo’s double Olympic gold medallist in 10m air rifle individual and mixed team events, for example. Ahead of the 2021 Olympics, Qian had only participated in one senior ISSF World Cup in 2019. Then, Zhang Changhong, who picked up the 50m rifle 3 positions gold in Tokyo with a world record score of 466.0, had participated in only one senior World Cup in 2019. He did, however, feature in the home World Cup Final later that year. Both of these athletes were not part of the squad that featured in the 2018 Asian Games. They were also absent in Hangzhou.

On the other hand, India is known to fly its first team to most World Cups, something it is trying to work on now since it all came crashing down at the last Summer Games.

Also, does a team medal hold a candle to an individual medal for an athlete? “Not even close. I was not even concentrating on the team medal. I was only focused on my individual achievements. Yes, it is a great thing that we won the team medal as well, but at the end of the day, it is an individual sport. The team event here isn’t like other team events where you brainstorm and work together. But again, I always believed that the team medal would be easy to get because we have an exceptional bunch of shooters,” says a shooter, who has had the good fortune of winning both the individual and team medals at the recently concluded Asian Games.

When the frenzied cheers finally fade out, it would bode well for the shooters to lounge for a while before getting their work mode back on. The Paris 2024 quota-bearing Asian Championship, after all, begins later this month.

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