Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar wins Asian Games bronze; family celebrates in Ratanpur

“Whenever he visits home, he visits the Navgrah fair if possible and shoots balloons too with the kids of the family. That’s where his love for shooting began. He has won medals in World Cups and World Championships but to win a medal in a competition like Asian Games is big for the family as well our whole district,” said Bahadur while talking with The Indian Express.

A consistent junior shooter, Tomar started competing in both 50m 3P events as well 10m Air Rifle events. Multiple medals in the junior World Championships were followed by gold medals in ISSF World Cup’s in 2021 and 2022 before he qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. Tomar finished 21st in Tokyo and returned without making it to the final in the 50m 3P event but it was a huge deal for his family back at the village.

“Like any other youngster, he was very disappointed with the finish in Tokyo. Initially he told us that people told him that he had done something wrong. But then as he practiced, he forgot those things and it was again only shooting for him. The two medals he won in the ISSF World Cups before are the pride of the family and he wanted to win the medal for the country. We gave him a warm reception and made sure that the memories of Tokyo did not come to his mind on his home visit and that’s what we plan to do again when he visits home with the Asian Games medal” recalls the father.

Post Tokyo, Tomar won the gold in 50m 3P event in the ISSF World Cup in Cairo last year before he sealed his place for the Asian Games in the trials this year. While he has been the mainstay in the men’s 50m 3p Indian team, the 21-year-old shooter has been making progress in the 10m air rifle events.

On Monday, Tomar qualified along with Patil for the eight-shooter final. The youngster was placed third after the first five shots and maintained his position after the next five with Sheng and Park occupying the first two spots respectively. Tomar had dropped to fourth spot following the first elimination series before dropping to fifth spot after the second elimination series.

With Patil and Mongolian Bayaraa Nyantai too in the mix in the top five, Tomar shot 10.8 and 10.3 to climb to the fourth spot behind Patil after the third elimination series. The next two elimination series’ saw him shooting scores of 10.5, 10.7, 10.5 and 10.2 with Patil displaying some excellent shooting to be tied with Tomar at the third spot after the fifth elimination series at 208.7.

This would lead to a shoot-off between the two Indians.

Tomar prevailed in that shoot-off to assure himself of at least a bronze and trailing Park by 0.7 points. Scores of 10.3 and 9.8 in the sixth elimination series meant that the Indian had to contend with the bronze medal. Earlier this year, Indian team’s foreign coach Thomas Farnik had shared about making some changes in Tomar’s technique. “Unlike many Indian shooters, Aishwary was willing to accept changes. We also did some changes in his shoulder position apart from making him realise that one cannot lose much in a particular series under the new format,” Farnik had told The Indian Express.