Who is Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar? All you need to know about the Asian Games 2023 Bronze Medalist

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and his teammates etched their name in the history books by breaking the world record and winning the coveted gold in the men’s 10m air rifle team at the 2023 Asian Games on 25 September.

Aishwary then found himself winning his second medal of the day, a hard-fought bronze in the men’s 10m air rifle individual event.

The Indian shooter comes from a very humble background. His father, a farmer, was heading to the fields to start work for the day when his son was setting the world record at the Asian games.

The story of how he took up the sport is a very interesting one. Tomar went from popping balloons at a local village fair to winning multiple medals at some of the most prestigious competitions in the world.

Who is Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar?

The 21-year-old shooting sensation from India was born in Ratanpur, a village in the Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh. A visit to the local fair led to an interest in the sport and after taking up training in 2015 at the Madhya Pradesh shooting academy, there was no looking back for the Indian shooter.

In 2019, Tomar won the bronze medal at the Asian airgun championship in the junior 10m air rifle event. He went on to win the 2019 ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl, setting a world record by scoring 459.3 points in the 50m P3 event in the process.

Tomar started competing in both 50m 3P events as well 10m Air Rifle events at the junior level, winning multiple medals in the junior World Championships.

A consistent shooter, Aishwary followed up the world championship medals by winning gold in the ISSF World Cup in 2021 and 2022 before managing to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. The young shooter finished 21st in Tokyo and returned without making it to the final in the 50m 3P event.

A year later, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar has managed to use the loss as motivation and win the bronze medal in men’s 10m air rifle, just edging past fellow Indian Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil in a thrilling shoot-off at the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

After 20 shots, Tomar and Rudrankksh found themselves tied at 208.7 but it was the boy from Madhya Pradesh who managed to hold his nerve and win the shootoff.

After Rudrankksh’s elimination, Tomar scored 228.8 but it was far from what Korean Park Hajun had set. Sheng Lihao from China clinched the gold medal with a world record score of 253.3.

The Indian athlete has not only won the hearts of his fellow countrymen but also set the tone at the Asian Games with his outstanding performance. Fans hope to see a lot more medals from the 21-year-old shooter in the coming years.