Asian Games 2023: Indian Shooters Enter Hangzhou With Gold In Mind

India's shooting contingent will look to match, or better, its ISSF World Championships exploits at the Asian Games. Having won 14 medals, including six gold and eight bronze, at the World Championships, India have asserted that they cannot be taken lightly at the Hangzhou showpiece. However, the Indian shooters have not been able to match the expectations of the nation.

As the Asian Games gets underway, expectation will once again be sky high from the big shoot contingent, which will look to improve upon the nine medals, including two gold and four silver, they won during the 2018 edition in Jakarta and Palembang.

With India producing dozens of world-class shooters, especially in pistol and rifle, every year it does not come as a surprise that, barring a handful of athletes, the contingent is largely comprised of Games first-timers.

Both the gold medallists at the previous Asian Games -- Rahi Sarnobat (25m sports pistol) and Saurabh Chaudhary (10m air pistol) -- are missing from the contingent, and so are several stalwarts such as rifle marksman Sanjeev Rajput, Apurvi Chandela and Heena Sidhu, among others.

But new faces, such as world champion 10m air rifle shooter Rudrankksh Patil, Esha Singh (10m air pistol), Sift Kaur Samra and Ashi Chouksey (50m rifle 3-positions) are some of the brightest prospects in the team with a potential to aim for gold, notwithstanding the extremely tough challenge the Chinese will pose in the coming fortnight.

Rudrankksh is among the best in the business with the World Championships gold and a 2024 Olympic quota place in his pocket at the age of 19. Expectations would certainly be very high from him after his consistent performance all through the year, including the half-a-dozen national