Jaspal Rana

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Briefly

Tushar.Dutt, June 13, 2026: The Times of India

Pune : Jaspal Rana never shied away from two things: fearless shooting and straight talk. At an age when any youngster would be thinking of playing safe, Jaspal risked it all by challenging a system that wasn’t athlete-friendly, all while winning medals and breaking records. Jaspal, a name that brought shooting into prominence, died of a heart attack in New Delhi, 16 days short of his 50th birthday.

Rana will not just be remembered for his medals or coaching credentials, but also for the fact that he was the first to make everyone believe that Indian shooters could win international medals.


Rana could be abrasive, stubborn and controversial, yet even his strongest critics would feel that if Jaspal picked a fight, it was usually over something that mattered to the athletes. In an era when silence was safer, confrontation became his preferred language.


A prodigy who shone at the shooting ranges when kids of his age were busy learning to balance on their bicycles, Jaspal won silver at his first Nationals at the age of 12. The Uttarkashi-born shooter stood out by winning Asian Games gold at the age of 18 — at Hiroshima 1994 — nine Commonwealth Games gold and six others, and then as the sport picked up in India he experienced a slump. Just as he was being written off, Jaspal stormed back with three gold and a silver, including a world record at the Asian Games gold in Doha in 2006.


That late streak would also prove his closing statement as a shooter.


As Gagan Narang wrote in his social media post, “Some names you grow up chasing, this was one of them.”Jaspal made Indian shooters believe they can be like him — a winner, a rebel and a pioneer who would carve his own niche at a time when shooters were perceived as mere travellers and not winners.


Lately, one would spot him at the shooting ranges sitting behind his wards, just looking at the targets and occasionally at the shooters. He would rarely speak to the shooters during the process. He often said, “if you feel you can teach something new to the shooters at this stage, you would be a fool.” 


Since 2012, he was key in giving shape to the juniors development programme of the National Rifle Association of India and identified, trained, prepared shooters like Manu Bhaker, Anish Bhanwala, Saurabh Chaudhary and Chinki Yadav. Though he participated in the 1996 Olympics in 10m air pistol and 50m pistol, Olympics would elude him as his chief event, centre fire pistol was not an Olympic event. His dream would be realised in terrific fashion by his ward Manu at the Paris Games . 


His relationship with Manu was once famously tempestuous, had its shares of ups and downs, but when the duo decided to bury the hatchet and come back together, it became a mission that Jaspal wanted to succeed at with an almost ascetic zeal. He was a Dronacharya who would rather give his own thumb than ask his ward for one.