At the ongoing Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, Swapnil Kusale, a 28-year-old Indian shooter and Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) from the Pune Railway Division, won the gold medal for India in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions (3P) team event, scoring a new world record of 1769 points on Friday.
He, along with two other players, Akhil Sheoran and Aishwarya Pratapsinh Tomar, established a new world record by surpassing the previous record of 1761 points set by the USA last year. Swapnil Kusale scored 591, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar scored 591 and Akhil Sheoran scored 587.
Expressing his disappointment of not securing a medal in a singles final, even though he secured first rank in the worldwide qualification round, he said, “I made top space out of eight in the qualification round. I was leading the final game from my 15th shot to the 40th shot but my 41st shot dropped me down to fifth position. I managed to finish fourth in the end, but I missed a medal by just 0.1 points.”
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Tusale belongs to Kambalwadi village of Kolhapur district and got a railway job as a ticket collector in 2015 in Pune Division. Before coming to Pune, Swapnil used to train for shooting in Krida Prabodhini, a state government-owned sports academy. He has been training in rifle shooting since 2009.
Swapnil earned his first medal at the Asian Games, and has previously won medals in national and international events. After winning a silver medal in singles and men’s team, along with a gold medal in mixed events at the ISSF World Cup 2022 in Baku, Azerbaijan, he secured his participation in the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.
“We get enough time for practice, after bringing national and international medals, we get a leave of 330 days for our training. I am happy that I clinched my first medal in the Asian Games and am looking for more in future events. After a month, I had another international tour for the 15th Asian Shooting Championship in Changwon, Korea,” the gold medalist said.
