| Sport | Shooting |
| Event | 10m Men’s Air Pistol |
| State | Haryana |
| Medal Record | |
| 2018 World Championships | Silver |
| 2019 World Cup | Gold |
| 2018 Asian Games | Bronze |
Abhishek Verma is an Indian shooter born on 1st August, 1989. He hails from Panipat, Haryana. Verma was ranked 2nd by the world body of the shooting International Shooting Sport Federation in 2019. As of 1st March 2020, he’s ranked 3rd by ISSF.
Abhishek Verma is the son of the former Haryana sessions court’s Judge. Abhishek Verma took up shooting as a hobby. His love for action movies inspired him to try his hands-on shooting. Another reason that inspired him to pick up a gun was when he saw gun-carrying bodyguards around his father. His hobby for shooting has converted into a passion.
Verma didn’t pursue shooting as a sport at a young age. Verma is a Btech Computer Science graduate. He decided to try shooting when he was pursuing law. He joined a local shooting academy in Hisar as a hobby in 2014. In 2017, his passion for shooting grew eventually. Verma moved to Eklavya Sports Shooting Academy in Gurugram to focus on shooting seriously.
Abhishek Verma was still pursuing shooting as a hobby when he first took part in a shooting competition at the All India University Games in 2015 and finished 5th in the shooting event. Later in the year, he participated in Shooting Nationals and ended up shooting below 553.
In 2015 and 2016, Abhishek took part in the Shooting National Championships, but scores were unimpressive. Shooting National Championships in 2017 was a turning point of his career where he was consistently scoring points well.
Abhishek Verma’s breakthrough in shooting came in 2018 when won a Silver medal in Kerala Shooting Nationals but he ended up in 12th place in an open event. This gave him an enormous jump in his national-level rankings. Later in the year, Verma began to take shooting more seriously after he received the call for trials. He won a Gold medal in his 2nd trial. After the initial 2 trials, his ranking jumped to 5th and soon moved up to 4th spot by the end of the 3rd and 4th trail.
His jump in rankings and success at trails provided him an opportunity to travel to Germany to participate in the ISSF World Cup in Munich.
Abhishek made his international debut at the age of 29. He received an international breakthrough after he won the Bronze medal in 10m air pistol at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia. 3 weeks after winning his 1st international medal, Verma won the Silver medal at the ISSF World Shooting Championships in Changwon, South Korea.
In 2019, Abhishek Verma shot to fame after he won his 1st International Gold medal in 10m air pistol event at ISSF World Cup in Bejing, China, and booked a berth at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Later in the year, he won another gold medal in 10m air pistol at the same event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Despite having 2 international Gold medals at ISSF World Cups and a Silver at World Shooting Championships, he considers his 1st international medal at the 2018 Asian Games as the cherished reward of his shooting career.
