Bumpy road to Asian Games bronze: Rudranksh Patil’s chaotic journey to Japan

For Rudranksh Patil, the journey to the Asian Games shooting range has been anything but smooth.

In front of the former world champion won bronze in the men’s 10m air rifle discipline on Monday he endured an emergency landing, a six-hour road trip, a long flight via Hong Kong, an overnight wait for transport, a hotel mix-up and bus journeys that took more than twice as long as promised.

Speaking to select media after the bronze medal, Patil described the ordeal he is facing Indian shooting on its way from Bhopal to Japan.

THE JOURNEY BEGINS

The journey began in Bhopal. Patil and the Indian shooting contingent were traveling to Delhi when their flight ran into trouble and made an emergency landing in Jaipur. From there, the shooters drove six hours to Delhi.

The next day they flew to Hong Kong, where they had a six or seven-hour layover before taking another five-hour flight to Japan.

Even after reaching Japan, the wait continued.

“After we reached here, everything was cleared within five minutes. We went to the welcome center. It took us three hours to wait for the bus there,” Patil said.

It was around 2 or 3 in the morning when they finally left for the hotel. They arrived around 3:30 or 4.

Then came another problem.

“After reaching the hotel, we realized that the hotel we had booked was not our hotel. We only had a few rooms there,” said Patil.

The hotel was supposed to be the best accommodation allocated to the contingent and the coaches questioned why the team was being moved despite receiving confirmation of the original booking.

Patil said the organizers had a system where one hotel acted as the main hotel and other hotels were connected to it. Rooms were allocated based on availability, but the system was not working as expected with reservations.

“It was quite disappointing to know,” he said.

The team eventually got rooms in a hotel next to the main one. But the rooms were small.

“We can’t open trunks here,” Patil said.

The coaches decided the rooms were too small for double occupancy and gave each shooter their own room.

“It made us much more comfortable. The room is small, but it’s also comfortable. It’s also cozy. I love now, I love this room, even though it’s small,” Patil said.

TRANSPORTATION CONTINUES

The problems did not end with accommodation.

Patil said that buses arrive on time to places but the journey takes much longer than expected.

“The buses arrive on time but it takes two hours to reach them instead of the 70 minutes they promised, sometimes two and a half hours,” he said.

Additional buses were arranged for the return journey the following day. However, there was still uncertainty about the next journey as organizers did not know how many athletes would travel, with each bus having a capacity of 50.

The Government of India then provided private cars for the rifle, pistol and shotgun teams. Competing athletes could use cars to ensure they arrived at the venue on time.

“Although the things are not so good, but again I like how it was resolved quickly,” said Patil.

Despite the problems, Patil said the atmosphere in Japan was good. He also commented positively on the organizers’ approach to food and sustainability.

The athletes were asked whether they would have lunch, dinner or breakfast with the meal prepared accordingly. Venues provided packed meals instead of large buffets, which Patil said helped reduce food wastage.

“I think it’s managed well in a way,” he said.

However, the experience was very different from previous Asian Games.

“There is no village, there is no 24-hour catering system, there are no buildings with many flags and you know how big the Asian Games usually are,” Patil said.

By the time he reached the shooting range, Patil had already had a journey that included an emergency landing, several flights, confusion at a hotel and a long wait for transport.

He still made a strong start in the 10m air rifle final and narrowly challenged China’s Lihao Sheng for gold. But a 9.7 in the final stages saw him finish third, while teenage team-mate Himanshu Dhillon moved up to second and eventually took silver.

Patil ended up with a bronze, adding an individual medal to the silver he won with Dhillon and Parth Man in the team event earlier in the day.

The bronze marked a fitting end to a journey that began with a crash landing in Jaipur and took the Indian shooter through many journeys and accommodation before finally reaching the range.

– The end

Issued by:

Amar Panicker

Published on:

21 Sep 2026 22:31 IST