Wrestling didn't stick. Shooting did: Himanshu Dhillon's road to Asian Games silver

The final two shooters were left standing. China's Sheng Lihao had gold in sight. 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 on 233.0. Dhillon was at 231.0.

Silver, at the age of 20. Day 2 Live Updates

A few hours earlier, Dhillon had already helped India win silver in the men's 10m air rifle team event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. He had shot 630.0 in qualification, 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 1899.0.

Dhillon survived the progressive eliminations as the contest tightened. He stayed in touch with Sheng and his Indian teammate Rudrankksh, before a late 10.9 kept him in contention. When Rudrankksh was eliminated after 22 shots, Dhillon was guaranteed a medal. He then took the contest into the final two with Sheng.

For a 20-year-old making his Asian Games debut, it was a remarkably composed performance. Screengrab from Asian Games website WRESTLER BEFORE

But Dhillon's path to the shooting range in Jind, Haryana, was anything but conventional. Shooting was not his first sporting choice. Wrestling was. His uncle, Olympian Hardeep Singh, inspired him to take up the sport. Dhillon followed him onto the wrestling mat, hoping perhaps to carve out a future there.

It did not take long for him to realise that wrestling was not for him.

"I took up wrestling. I was inspired by my uncle, Olympian Hardeep Singh," Dhillon had told RevSportz.

"It was a bit too much for me. It was hard. So I stopped wrestling."

There was another problem. Dhillon had little appetite for the classroom.

"I never had any interest in studies," he says.

His father, a farmer, had a practical way of making his son understand what hard work looked like. He took Himanshu to the fields.

The experience did not suddenly turn Dhillon into a student. Instead, it made him think about what he wanted to do next. Shooting offered an answer.

There was a range close to his home. Dhillon walked in, without a career plan or any particular expectation of where it might lead. Then came the Covid-19 lockdown. With little else competing for his attention, Dhillon began to devote himself to shooting.

Dhillon emerged through India's junior ranks, winning gold in the men's 10m air rifle at the 2025 ISSF Junior World Cup in New Delhi. He also won gold in the mixed team event and a bronze in Suhl. In 2026, he added two gold medals at the Asian Rifle/Pistol Championships in New Delhi, in the men's 10m air rifle and mixed team junior events.

His transition to the senior circuit followed. On his senior ISSF World Cup debut in Munich, he finished ninth in the men's 10m air rifle after producing a 635.7 in qualification.

Now, he has an Asian Games silver medal to show for the journey.

His father's role has not ended with taking him to the fields. Dhillon speaks about the motivation videos his father sends him – reminders, perhaps, of the distance between the boy who once did not know what he wanted to do and the shooter now standing on an Asian Games podium.- EndsPublished By: Akshay RameshPublished On: Sep 21, 2026 11:24 IST