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India's World Championships and Asian Games gold medalist rifle shooter Rudrankksh Patil spoke on his World Cup gold medal win in Argentina and the omission of his sport from 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, saying that it does not make a much of a difference to him since his coaches prioritise other competitions, which he finds much tougher.
After his gold medal win in Argentina during the recently concluded International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup, Rudrankksh spoke to ANI. "I feel good (after winning the gold) at the World Cup after almost two years. It is a great feeling. The competition was really tough and I really feel well," said the shooter. Rudrankksh won the gold by shooting 252.9 in a pillar to post effort to win the men's10m air rifle final earlier in April, at Buenos Aires, Argentina. The young Indian shooter was constantly hunted down by the great and in-form Hungarian rifle shooter Istvan Peni, fresh from a men's 3P gold a couple of days back, but pulled out the big shots when it mattered in a sharp performance. On shooting being dropped from CWG 2026 Glasgow programme alongside other medal heavy sports for India like badminton, cricket, hockey etc, Rudrankksh said that while he would like to see shooting back in the competition since India gets a lot of medals in it, the move personally has no effect on him. "Even last time I could not play shooting in CWG (as it was removed from 2022 Birmingham programme as well), so I am not feeling much of a difference. My coach emphasises on playing the world championships, Olympics and Asian Games, because in Asian Games, the competitors are from China and Korea which are very tough. Seeing the level of competition, these tournaments are much more tougher. But since India wins in a lot of medal in shooting, it would be nice if the sport is back in CWG," he said. Speaking on missing out on Olympics despite winning a quota for that and finishing third in the trial, Rudrankksh said that it was a little difficult to bring himself back to the sport. "I had to work on a couple of things and forth. I had support of my sponsors and coaches and because of them it was easy for me to get back at that level again," he added. Speaking on if India is in a 'golden era' of shooting after winning three medals in Paris Olympics, its best-ever performance in the competition, the shooter said that it could be better. "I think it can better. We make a lot of differentiations between the Olympics, world championships and world cups, but at the end of the day, same people who go to Olympics and world championships go to these competitions. We often lead the tally (in events like World Cup). Comparing to Olympics, there is scope for improvement, I do not think we are in a golden phase yet but the things are headed in right direction," he concluded. (ANI)
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