Biography

Jaspal Rana is an Indian shooter and a shooting coach who is well known for winning a gold medal at the 1994 Asian Games, 1998 Commonwealth Games, 2002 Commonwealth Games, and others.Jaspal Rana was introduced to the sport of shooting by his father, Narayan Singh Rana, who was an official at the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). He was Jaspals first coach and he taught him both pistol and rifle at the age of 10. Jaspal started with both weapons but decided to settle for a pistol.Jaspal Rana started his shooting career at an early age when at the age of 12, he made his national debut at the 31st National Shooting Championship, Ahmedabad in 1988 and won a silver medal. With this continuous rise in his ranks, Jaspal made his international debut in 1994 with the junior series at the 46th World Shooting Championships with a world record score in Milan, Italy. Childhood image of Jaspal Rana.The win in Milan was memorable for Jaspal as he was suffering from a boil on his knee and was supposed to go for surgery before the World Shooting Championships event. However, Jaspal was determined to participate in the event, and he did so despite the pain he was experiencing. The result of this struggle was worth it as he bagged his first international medal (junior section), and made a juniors world record in the 25m pistol event. As a shooter, all my achievements are memorable because its almost 16 years of winning and losing and lots of ups and downs but 1994 Milan World Championships when I won gold with world record (is special) because I was in hospital on the night before the competition as I had a boil on my knee and it was very bad. Doctors refused us to discharge me and my coach Sunny Thomas decided to run away from there because I wanted to shoot. We came back the next day and got the surgery done..Jaspal Rana continued the gold medal streak and won another gold medal at the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima. He was awarded the Arjuna Award in the same year.During the 46th World Shooting Championship (Junior Section), Jaspal made a record in the junior section in the 25 m centerfire pistol with 590 points. He had made this score previously in 1995 in Coimbatore, and 1997 in Bangalore in various national competitions.In 1997, Jaspal received the Padma Shri award for his consistent performance in the sports.Apart from these, Jaspal Rana also has several other significant achievements included gold medals in the 1998 Commonwealth Games, 2002 Commonwealth Games, and 2006 Commonwealth Games. Jaspal Rana posing with his gold medal after the Commonwealth Games.In 2006, Jaspal Rana began his political journey and joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2009 and lost the elections to INC candidate Vijay Bahuguna. Later, in 2012, Jaspal left BJP and joined INC from the state of Uttarakhand.In 2019, the Delhi State Rifle Association filed a case in Delhi High Court over the governments decision of omitting junior national coach Jaspal Ranas name from the list of Dronacharya Awardees for 2019. The plea was put forward by advocate Rahul Mehra, who was appearing for the association and requested the court to order the government to honour Jaspal Rana with the award. The court asked Mehra to withdraw the petition as it was not filed by Jaspal Rana himself, however, Mehra argued saying that Jaspal Rana is in Rio de Janeiro for the World Cup and the vakalatnaama will be sent by him through e-mail. Mehra also brought up the fact that several junior shooters including medal winners like Manu Bhaker, Saurabh Chaudhary, Anmol Jain, Arjun Singh, Devanshi Rana, and others have trained under Jaspal Rana and he has earned the Dronacharya award. [5]The Indian Express The virtual award ceremony for Dronacharya Award.