🔫 YEAR-END REVIEW – SPORTS ARENA SPECIAL

SHOOTING 🔫

2025 has been proven to be one of the best years for Indian Shooting. From claiming the most number of medals in Olympic events at the World Championships to Asian achievements, the nation has firmly established itself as one of the global elites in the sport.

Let’s discuss the achievements of elite shooters.

Elite Shooter Performances

⭐ Samrat Rana

Samrat proved his potential by becoming the first Indian individual pistol shooter to be crowned World Champion. He defeated Hu Kai 🇨🇳, who otherwise remained unbeaten at global events in 2025.

He partnered with Esha Singh to win Silver in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event and ended the season with Bronze in 10m Air Pistol at the World Cup Final.

🌟 Suruchi Inder Singh

2025 marked a breakthrough year for the 19-year-old, establishing her as one of India’s top pistol shooters.

Key Achievements:

🥇 Women’s 10m Air Pistol – ISSF World Cup Buenos Aires
🥇 Women’s 10m Air Pistol – ISSF World Cup Lima
🥇 Women’s 10m Air Pistol – ISSF World Cup Munich
🥇 World Cup Final, Doha with a new Junior World Record of 245.1

🎯 Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar

A prominent name in 50m Rifle 3 Positions, Aishwary:

Won Gold at the Asian Championships
Finished Silver at the World Cup Final
Narrowly missed World Championships gold on the final shot

At the National Championships, he fired 470.5, surpassing the previous world record by 1.6 points, to claim the title.

🔥 Anish Bhanwala

India’s premier 25m Rapid Fire Pistol shooter:

🥈 Asian Championships
🥈 ISSF World Championships (after surviving four shoot-offs)
🥈 World Cup Final, defeating World Champion Clément Bessaguet 🇫🇷 in the shoot-off

🎯 Esha Singh

Esha had a strong multi-event season:

🥇 10m Air Pistol – Ningbo World Cup
🥈 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team – World Championships
🥉 Women’s 25m Pistol – World Championships

🎯 Elavenil Valarivan

Elavenil’s season highlighted India’s growing strength in women’s rifle shooting:

🥇🥇 Asian Championships (Individual & Mixed Team)
🥉 World Championships

💥 Varun Tomar

Varun played a key role in India’s maiden Men’s 10m Air Pistol team gold at the World Championships. He also won an individual bronze, marking the first time India secured multiple podium finishes in the same event at Worlds.

🌟 Simranpreet Kaur Brar

Simran stunned the field at the World Cup Final by equalling the Junior World Record (41/50) to win Gold in Women’s 25m Pistol, competing against multiple World and Olympic medallists.

⭐ Manu Bhaker

The Paris Olympics star had a relatively quieter year:

🥉 10m Air Pistol – Asian Championships
🥈 Lima World Cup

🏆 Zoravar Singh Sandhu

At 48 years old, Zoravar won Bronze in Men’s Trap at the World Championships, scoring 31 in the final.

This was:

India’s third-ever individual men’s trap medal at Shotgun Worlds
India’s first podium finish in the event in 19 years
Zoravar’s first individual World Championships medal after 13 appearances

🎯 Rudrankksh Patil

A relatively quiet year for the former World Champion:

🥇 Buenos Aires World Cup
🥈🥈 Mixed Team events (with Arya Borse)

🔫 Arjun Babuta

Partnered with Arya Borse to defeat World Champions Sheng Lihao / Wang Zifei 🇨🇳 at the Munich World Cup.

🎯 Sift Kaur Samra

Sift began the season strongly with:

🥇 Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions – Buenos Aires World Cup
🥇 Asian Shooting Championships 🇰🇿

♿ Para-Shooting Glory

Indian para shooters had a successful year competing mainly at World Shooting Para Sport (WSPS) World Cups in:

Changwon 🇰🇷
Al Ain 🇦🇪

Highlights included multiple gold medals from established stars Avani Lekhara and Manish Narwal, alongside emerging talents such as Rudransh Khandelwal, Sumedha Pathak, Akash, and Sandeep Kumar.

🔔 Deaflympics Excellence

India delivered a dominant performance at the Deaflympics, winning a record 16 medals:

🥇 7 Gold
🥈 6 Silver
🥉 3 Bronze

This was India’s largest shooting contingent (12 athletes) and best-ever haul, significantly improving on the previous edition.

Mahit Sandhu emerged as the most successful athlete with 4 medals (2 Gold, 2 Silver) and multiple Deaflympics records.
Dhanush Suresh scored higher than able-bodied World Champion Maximilian Dallinger 🇩🇪 in the final to win Men’s 10m Rifle Gold.

🔮 Looking Ahead

With a strong talent pipeline and seasoned campaigners in form, Indian shooters will aim for podium finishes at the 2026 Asian Games, Asian Para Games, and beyond.

✍️ Credits

Original Analysis & Coverage: Sports Arena
Original Post: Year-End Review – Shooting (2025)

Adapted and formatted for digital publishing.