The 20-year-old Samrat Rana, scripted history as India won its first ever gold medal in the men’s 10m air pistol at the World Shooting Championships. The young star from Karnal in Haryana came up with a dream performance in his first-ever senior world championship final to pip Hu Kai of China, who had gone through the entire 2025 season undefeated.
Nerves of steel were on full display for Rana in a nail-biting final as he competed against the eventual silver medalist. He led by a slender margin of 0.6 points before the last shot and with a fine effort of 10.6 stayed ahead of Hu Kai’s late surge with 10.8. With a total of 243.7, Rana won gold, while Hu settled for silver with 243.3. Varun Tomar claimed the bronze with a score of 221.7 to give India a memorable double podium finish.
This victory is a remarkable rise for Rana, who, till this year, had never competed in a senior international final. His first big outing was at the ISSF World Cup in Ningbo, China, where he came 10th. Prior to this, Rana had won gold medals in team and mixed team events at the 2022 Junior World Championships in Cairo and in the World University Championships in Delhi in 2024. His promotion to the senior squad came off the back of some consistent performances in domestic trials – including a win over the Olympic Champion Saurabh Chaudhary – that saw him break into the team.
The final lineup in Cairo indeed featured the biggest names of the sport-from Olympic and world champions Christian Reitz, Pavlo Korostylov, and Federico Maldini to the formidable Hu Kai-but Rana kept his cool and tactical acumen all along.
Their depth in shooting was complete when the men’s team of Rana, Tomar, and Shravan Kumar won the team gold with a total of 1754, beating off Italy and Germany. In the women’s 10m air pistol event, Manu Bhaker and Esha Singh reached the finals but missed podium finishes. By the end of the day, India’s medal haul rose to nine (3 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze) just behind China’s 12 marking another milestone in India’s golden shooting era.
