One point down in 2018, Trap Shooter Ahvar Rizvi gets chance at Asian Games eight years later

In 2018, Ahvar Rizvi missed India’s Asian Games selection by one spot. It was then that he competed in Double Trap, an event where he established himself as one of India’s promising young shooters. At the Changwon World Championships that year, Rizvi won the Junior Double Trap title. However, the place of the Asian Games went elsewhere.“I missed the Asian Games by one point,” Rizvi told TOI Sports. “I was very sad because the competition is once every four years and it’s a big competition. You miss that, so I didn’t know what to do after that.”There was another problem. Double Trap was subsequently removed from the international program, so Rizvi moved to Trap in 2019.“I struggled a lot when Double Trap was closed,” he said. “I was in the team continuously for six or seven years and then all of a sudden I was out of the team.Asian Games full coverage | Medal Tally | ScheduleSeven years later, Rizvi is back in the Indian team at the Asian Games. Trapped this time. The 26-year-old from Meerut’s Mahalgaon is gearing up for his first appearance at the Continental Games after being named in the Indian men’s trap team in 2026 alongside Kynan Chenai and Shapath Bharadwaj – the junior bronze medalist in which Rizvi won gold in 2018.“It took me seven or eight years to get here,” Rizvi said. “So this is my first international trap tournament and my first Asian Games. So I feel very proud. I will play for India. I will hold the Indian flag high there.”

From the Double Trap Gun to the borrowed Trap Gun

Rizvi started shooting because shooting was already a part of the family. His father, uncles and cousins ​​shot dead. He used air guns as a child before asking his father if he could start shooting shotguns. His father initially felt he was too young for the recoil of a twelve-cylinder.“There was a lot of backlash in the 1200. At that time I was small and very thin, so my father told me not to do it yet,” Rizvi said.He went to his uncle instead. “When I came here, I qualified at the state level. When I got home, all the family members were there with flowers for me. They welcomed me.”He then qualified for pre-nationals and nationals. He still didn’t have his own weapon. His cousin Raiyan Rizvi allowed him to use his. “I didn’t have a gun, so my cousin Raiyan, who I just told you about, let me use his,” he said.Rizvi was too young to have a license. The weapon was also physically large for him. “When I competed in the national round, the gun was bigger than me,” he said. “My cousin was standing behind me. When the recoil came, he was pushing me back. So he was standing behind me to support me.”That was the beginning. Next came the Indian team followed by the Junior World Double Trap title in 2018. Then the action disappeared and Rizvi had to learn the Trap.“I continued to do it but my coach Vikram (Singh Chopra), sir, who was always with me and supported me, never told me that I had crossed the double trap and that I would not be able to do it,” he said. “He always told me I could do it.It took years for Rizvi to feel that he understood the new events. “After two or three years, I started to understand what a trap was.The score still didn’t follow right away. He missed the pick by a few points in 2024 and again in 2025. There was also a point where he stopped shooting.“There was a point in between when I quit because it wasn’t happening,” Rizvi said. “But when I represented India, I thought I would do it in the future.

The borrowed gun that took him to the Asian Games

The equipment was another part of the reconstruction. Rizvi’s old Double Trap pistol could not be simply transferred to the Trap. He eventually got a Trap pistol from teammate Lakshya Sheoran, an Asian Games silver medalist, and used it for a year in national competitions and trials.“Though I have a trap, this weapon is not mine. This is my friend Lakshya’s weapon. He is a silver medalist in the Asian Games,” Rizvi said.“So he gave me this gun. I’ve been competing with his gun in nationals and trials for a year now.” Rizvi now has its own warehouse, made in Italy and modified for competition.“The stock is mine and I modified it for the competition,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of improvement since I switched supplies. The equipment was still being fine-tuned as he prepared for the Asian Games.“Vikram sir, when we were in Italy for the World Cup, I got my supplies ready,” said Rizvi. “I was a bit worried about my equipment, but now I have to focus 100 percent on what I have to do.”Its international results for 2026 show that the work still continues. He finished 39th in the Almaty World Cup Trap Qualifier with 115 and 47th in Lonat with 118. In Almaty, Rizvi and Pragati Dubey finished 23rd in Mixed Teams with 130. However, the selection trials gave him the opening he had been waiting for.And this time there was no need to do a single point calculation.“I never thought that if I got that one point at that time, it would have been different,” Rizvi said of 2018. “I just didn’t get it then, so I was a little sad. Then I put it behind me and started again.”

He is out of range in the fields

His life outside the shooting range is somewhat different from what the range might suggest. Rizvi’s family has been involved in shooting for years, but farming remains a part of his daily life.“Ahvar Rizvi is a normal person. He is a farmer’s son and unless there is a shooting, he is in the fields with his father and elder brother,” he said.However, the Asian Games was what he was waiting for.“We’re in this game and everyone expects us to bring gold when we go to the event,” he said. “Gold doesn’t come just because we’re on the team. We have to work hard.”There will be nervousness. Rizvi expects it. “When we play a match, there is excitement and nervousness. But the main thing is to be in control.”His way of controlling it is to talk to his trainer. “When I talk to my coach, whenever I’m nervous, it gives me a lot of relief and keeps me focused.His first Asian Games comes after a competition he missed in 2018, an event he lost in Double Trap, years spent trying to understand Trap, and a selection process that ultimately went his way. He doesn’t spend much time looking back.“I came back and never looked back,” he said. “Now it’s 2028 and the Olympics are coming up. I can see it now.”For Nagoya, however, his instructions are simpler.“We get thoughts before we shoot. We think when we compete. Those thoughts come, but stopping them is very important.”“If the target is to be abandoned, let it come. But we must break. We must hit the target.”“Never give up. So this is my thought.”