Asian Games: Five new shooters to watch out for

Shooting is India's one of the biggest medal-winning sports at the Asian Games. At the Hangzhou Games, India will look to win as many medals as possible from shooting, starting on September 24.

10m air rifle, women's individual and team events will take place on the first day.

Here are the five shooters who can shine at their Asian Games debut.

Rudrankksh Patil

19-year-old World Champion Rudrankksh is one of the biggest names in the Indian shooting contingent. He became the second Indian after Abhinav Bindra to win a world championship gold in the men's 10m Air rifle event. He achieved this feat at the 2022 World Championships in Cairo, Egypt. He also won one World Cup gold last year and was the President's Cup champion in Cairo, Egypt, in 2022.

Rhythm Sangwan

19-year-old world record holder Rhythm Sangwan has been in great form in the last two years. She is currently ranked in the top 8 in the women's 25m pistol event. Rhythm also possesses the current world record of 595 in the 25m women's pistol event. She achieved the feat in May 2023 at the Baku World Cup. She won a silver medal at the 2022 World Championships in the women's 25m standard pistol event.

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar

22-year-old Aishwary Tomar is the Junior World Champion in men's 50m rifle 3 positions, he won the medal in 2019 in Lima, Peru. He also represented India at the Tokyo Olympics. He is a three-time World Cup champion with one title each in the last three years. He is currently ranked among the top ten shooters in the world in 50M rifle 3 positions. The former Asian medalist will now look for his first Asian Games medal in Hangzhou, China.

Sift Kaur Samra

Sift Kaur, 22, has recently finished fifth at the World Championships and won the Paris Olympic quota for India in women's 50m rifle 3 positions with this performance. She recently won her first-ever individual World Cup medal this year in Bhopal, India. She has made rapid progress in the international circuit, where she came into the limelight after she won Gold in the 2022 Junior World Cup.

Sarabjot Singh

21-year-old Sarabjot Singh is also having a good year. He made it to the three World Cup finals this year and also won his maiden World Cup medal, that too a gold medal in Bhopal in the men's 10M Air pistol event. In this event, he is currently among the top ten shooters in the world. Sarabjot won the Asian Championships gold medal in 2019. He will look for his first-ever Asian Games Medal.