National Games 2025: Parth Mane pips Olympians, world champion to win men's 10m air rifle

Maharashtra's 17-year-old Parth Mane emerged victorious in a men's 10m air rifle field stacked with Olympians and a former world champion at the 2025 National Games in Dehradun, Uttarakhand on Friday.

The teenager, who had finished third in the qualification rounds a day prior, shot an excellent 252.6 in the final to win a gold medal on his National Games debut.

Parth pipped former world champion Rudrankksh Patil, who took home the silver medal with a score of 252.1 for Maharashtra. Kiran Jadhav of Services won the bronze medal with 230.7.

"I just wanted to follow my process," Parth told The Bridge soon after his win. "I did not have the stature of opponents in my mind. I simply wanted to stay in my zone."

The men's 10m air rifle final in Dehradun also had India's 2024 Paris Olympians Arjun Babuta and Sandeep Singh in the mix.

Babuta had, in fact, come agonisingly close to a medal in Paris, finishing fourth.

But Parth is no stranger to taking down well known names when it matters. Just under two months after the Paris Games last year, he had taken down Sweden's Victor Lindgren in the ISSF Junior World C'ships final.

Parth was then crowned the Junior World Champion in men's 10m air rifle in Lima, Peru.

"I did not even know there was an Olympic silver medallist competing at that moment," the teenager said nonchalantly. "It was only after the final that I got to know he had won a medal at the Olympics."

That win gave Parth the confidence and self belief that he belongs to the higher level.

Still eligible to compete at the junior levels, Parth asserted that he'll compete only in the senior categories from this year. Having tasted success at the senior event, he has no intention of dropping back to junior competitions where he has notched up impressive victories over the last three years.

Parth now has his eyes set on the 2025 ISSF World Championships, the national trials for which will be held by the National Rifle Association of India in February.

"I want to not think much and continue this form at the selection trials," he said.

Parth took to shooting as a 10-year-old back in 2018 somewhere in Pune. Realising his potential to make it big in the sport, his entire family shifted base to Mumbai three years ago where he currently trains under the watchful eyes of renowned coach and Arjuna awardee Suma Shirur.

The Mane family took a gamble on their son and Parth, at 17, is already proving them right.