# The Chosen One: How Rudrankksh Patil Turns Setbacks Into Fuel for Indian Shooting > From a childhood dessert bribe that kept him in the sport to a world title and an Asian Games near miss that slid from silver to bronze, Rudrankksh Patil has built a career on treating every setback as proof he was meant for this. - Source: India Max - Canonical URL: https://indiamax.net/article/the-chosen-one-how-rudrankksh-patil-turns-setbacks-into-fuel-for-indian-shooting - Author: India Max Staff - Section: Sport - Published: 2026-09-22T06:51:28.951Z - Updated: 2026-09-22T06:51:28.951Z - Tags: Rudrankksh Patil, Shooting, Asian Games, Profile - Hindi edition: https://indiamax.net/hi/article/the-chosen-one-how-rudrankksh-patil-turns-setbacks-into-fuel-for-indian-shooting --- Rudrankksh Patil has a line he reaches for whenever life throws up an obstacle that has nothing to do with a shooting range. If his passport gets rejected or his visa gets turned down, he says, it simply means he was chosen for something else instead. It is a joke, but one that sits on top of a far more serious habit of mind, the discipline of managing the swings that come with being one of the most closely watched shooters to come out of India in years. That discipline was forged early. Patil once quit the sport altogether, finding it boring as a young boy in Thane, Maharashtra, before his mother talked him back into it with the promise of a dessert, a small bargain that eventually produced a world champion. In 2022 he won gold in the 10 metre air rifle event at the World Championships, becoming only the second Indian to claim that title after Abhinav Bindra, and later that year added an Asian Games gold in the team event in Hangzhou. The 2026 Asian Games brought a different kind of test. Patil carried a sizeable lead into the individual 10 metre air rifle final and looked firmly on course for the top of the podium, before a single 9.7 shot triggered a late slide that cost him gold and then silver, dropping him to bronze behind teammate Himanshu Dhillon by a margin of just 0.1 points. Patil later described the moment as the culmination of six difficult months, missed World Cups, training that had not gone well, and a build up of negativity that had quietly worn down his confidence before it surfaced at the worst possible moment. He found some redemption in the team event, where he combined with Himanshu Dhillon and Parth Mane to win silver in the men's 10 metre air rifle competition, a result that kept his Asian Games from ending purely on the sting of what had slipped away individually. Asked about recognition after the individual result, Patil chose to keep his frustration private rather than air it publicly, saying that awards are not something within his control and that the only thing he can actually do is keep winning medals, in the hope that the country notices and appreciates the effort behind them. It is a mindset that echoes his own description of not seeing himself or his teammates as untouchable figures in the sport, just competitors trying to get a little closer to perfect each time they lift the rifle. --- Originally published by India Max. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://indiamax.net/article/the-chosen-one-how-rudrankksh-patil-turns-setbacks-into-fuel-for-indian-shooting.