Outspoken, controversial, unforgettable: Jaspal Rana was the original prodigy of Indian shooting

Jaspal Rana (Image credit: Agencies) PUNE: Jaspal Rana has never shied away from two things: Fearless shooting and straight talk. He practiced both with remarkable consistency for more than three decades.At an age when every youngster considered playing it safe to build a career, Jaspal not only risked it by challenging a system that was not fit for athletes, but also won medals and broke records to make sure the noise was not empty and meaningful.Jaspal, a name that brought shooting to prominence, defined a generation and personified courage, died of a heart attack in the capital on Friday, 16 days before his 50th birthday.He will not only be remembered for his medals or coaching diplomas, but also for being the first to make everyone believe that Indian shooters can win international medals. The pioneer of Indian shooting, who was known to stand up for sportsmen’s rights even when there were none, will be remembered for challenging the status quo, never afraid to question the authorities and being unapologetically blunt.He could be rough, stubborn and controversial, but even his strongest critics would feel that if Jaspal chose to fight, it was usually for something that mattered to the athlete. At a time when silence was safer, confrontation became his preferred language.In Jaspal’s case, it will not be an exaggeration that it was the sport that chose him and not otherwise.Jaspal, a child prodigy who shone at the shooting ranges when kids his age were learning how to balance on a bicycle, won silver in his first national competitions at the age of 12. The Uttarkashi-born shooter excelled by winning an Asian Games gold at the age of 18 — Hiroshima 1994 — nine Commonwealth Games and six more in India before winning gold in India.Just as he was being written off, Jaspal burst back into our consciousness with three golds and a silver, including a world record Gold at the Doha Asian Games in 2006. This late streak would also prove his final statement as a marksman.As Gagan Narang wrote in his social media post, “Some names you grow up chasing, this was one of them”, Jaspal made Indian shooters believe that they could be like him, a winner, a rebel and a trailblazer to carve out their own place at a time when shooters were seen as mere travelers and not winners.Lately, you’ve seen him sitting behind his charges at the ranges, just looking at the targets and occasionally the shooter.He rarely spoke to shooters during the process, as he often said, “If you feel like you could teach a shooter anything new at this stage, you’d be a fool”. Since 2012, he has been instrumental in shaping the Junior Development Program of the National Rifle Association of India and has identified, trained and prepared shooters such as Manu Bhaker, Anish Bhanwala, Saurabh Chaudhary and Chinki Yadav.Although he competed in the 1996 Olympics in the 10m air pistol and the 50m pistol, he missed the Olympics as his main event, the center pistol was not an Olympic event. His dream would be realized in an amazing way by his protégé Manu at the 2024 Paris Games.His relationship with Manu had once been famously tumultuous, with its ups and downs, but when the duo decided to bury the hatchet and get back together, it became a mission that Jaspal wanted to succeed with an almost ascetic fervor.Few agreed with his coaching style or the personality he was, but Jaspal didn’t care. He found a reflection of his own self in Manu, and it was no surprise when the duo reunited in 2023 after a rift around the Tokyo Games three years earlier. If Jaspal asked Manu to punch a wall, Manu would punch two. Chemistry, madness found a match, and with it two bronze medals in Paris became the logical climax of a dramatic journey.It was Dronacharya who would rather give his own thumb than ask his ward to give it.