Himanshu Dhillon reacts after winning the silver medal in the 10M air rifle event.
| Photo Credit: R. V. Moorthy
As a State, Haryana typically evokes two distinct images — wrestling and shooting, the latter of a less-than-desirable kind. Himanshu Dhillon was expected to take up the first, carrying the family’s and state’s sporting tradition forward. He found his calling in the second instead, but one that brings fame and appreciation.
The 20-year-old, winning silver in his maiden senior international outing here, has the self-assured confidence that might seem cocky in others but for the region he comes from, is par for the course. “I am only happy when I win gold. My father always says gold is the only medal that counts; every silver is a gold lost. That thought has always been with me and that was my target here too. I had decided that even if I had to walk off after every shot to get my bearings right, I would do it but go for gold. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen but I will keep trying till I get it,” he declared after the 10m air rifle event on Monday.
It’s a belief that has been almost a decade in the making. Nephew of 2016 Rio Olympics Greco-Roman 98kg wrestler Hardeep Singh Dhillon, Himanshu as a chubby kid was initiated into the sport for fitness but could only last a few weeks. “Wrestling was too hard,” he shrugged. His father got him enrolled into Gurukul Pundri in Kaithal to make him independent and that’s where the shooting bug bit him.
“When I started, every time I would collapse on the mat, I would wonder what I had got myself into. But now it finally feels like I did the right thing, that the decision to get into shooting was not a mistake,” he laughed.
The never-say-die attitude also comes to the fore when talking about the battle with senior teammate Rudrankksh Patil for the colour of the medal. “I knew I could have taken it a little easy after the top-three were decided, that at least a bronze was confirmed. But I was not ready to give up. I kept thinking that the colour of the medal could still change, that I could maybe shoot a perfect score and the others might slip up,” he said.
Next up will be the World championships in Doha and while he admits that it is motivating to see some of the world’s best shooters around him in the changing room, things are different at the shooting range. “There, everyone starts at zero. Wahan dekhte hain kiska kitna jigra hai.” Clearly, that jigra is one thing Himanshu isn’t short of.
Published – September 21, 2026 07:03 pm IST
