Wrestling didn’t stick. The shoot went through: Himanshu Dhillon’s journey to silver at the Asian Games
The last two shooters remained standing. China’s Sheng Lihao had gold in his sights. Himanshu Dhillon had one last chance to turn an unexpected journey into an Asian Games medal.
Both fired 10.6s with their final shots. Sheng finished at 233.0. Dhillon was at 231.0.
Silver, aged 20 years. Day 2 Live Updates
A few hours earlier, Dhillon had already helped India win silver in the men’s 10m air rifle event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. He scored 630.0 in the qualifiers, combining with Rudrankksh Patil’s 631.8 and Parth Mane’s 628.3 to give India a total of 1890.1, behind China’s world record of 1899.0.
Then came the individual finals.
Dhillon survived successive eliminations as the competition intensified. He stayed in touch with Sheng and his Indian teammate Rudranksh before he was released on late 9/10. kept in contention. When Rudrankksh was eliminated after 22 runs, Dhillon was assured of a medal. He then advanced to the finals with Sheng.
It was a remarkably composed performance for the 20-year-old making his Asian Games debut. Screenshot from the Asian Games website
FORMERLY A WRESTLER
But Dhillon’s journey to the shooting range in Jind, Haryana was anything but conventional. Shooting was not his first choice of sport. The match was He was inspired to take up the sport by his uncle, Olympian Hardeep Singh. Dhillon followed him to the wrestling mat, hoping he might carve out a future there.
It didn’t take him long to realize that wrestling wasn’t for him.
“I started wrestling. I was inspired by my uncle, Olympian Hardeep Singh,” Dhillon told RevSportz.
“It was a little too much for me. It was hard. So I stopped wrestling.”
There was another problem. Dhillon didn’t feel like going to class.
“I was never interested in studying,” he says.
His father, a farmer, had a practical way of making his son understand what hard work looked like. He took Himansha to the fields.
“I understood that it is not easy.
The experience didn’t suddenly turn Dhillon into a student. Instead, it made him think about what he wanted to do next. The shooting offered an answer.
There was a shooting range near his home. Dhillon walked in, without a career plan or any particular expectation of where it might lead. Then came the Covid-19 lockdown. Dhillon turned to shooting as little else competed for his attention.
The results started coming in quickly.
Dhillon made a name for himself in the Indian junior rankings, winning gold in the men’s 10m air rifle at the 2025 ISSF World Junior Championships in New Delhi. He also won gold in mixed teams and bronze in Suhl. In 2026, he added two gold medals at the Asian Rifle and Pistol Championships in New Delhi, in the men’s 10 m air rifle and junior mixed teams.
This was followed by his transition to the senior circuit. On his senior debut at the ISSF World Cup in Munich, he finished ninth in the men’s 10m air rifle after producing 635.7 in qualifying.
Now he has a silver medal from the Asian Games in front of him.
His father’s role didn’t end with taking him to the field. Dhillon talks about the motivational videos his father sends him — perhaps a reminder of the distance between the boy who once didn’t know what he wanted to do and the shooter who now stands on the podium at the Asian Games.
– The end
Issued by:
Akshay Ramesh
Published on:
21 Sep 2026 11:24 IST