Rudraksh Patil is an Indian sports shooter. She gained popularity after securing a Paris 2024 Olympic quota by winning the gold medal in 10m air rifle at the 2022 ISSF World Championships Rifle/Pistol in Cairo. He became the second Indian to win a gold medal in 10 meter air rifle at the World Championships after Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra won the World Championships in 2006. At the age of 18, Patil became world No. 1 after winning a pair of gold medals in the men’s 10 meter air rifle shooting. World Championships and ISSF President’s Cup. He won two gold medals in the individual and mixed team events during the 2023 World Cup in Cairo, and two bronze medals in the same events at the 2023 World Cup in Bhopal.
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Wiki/Biography
Rudraksh Balasaheb Patil was born on Tuesday, 16 December 2003 (age 20 years; as of 2023), and hails from Thane, Maharashtra. Their zodiac sign is Sagittarius. He did his schooling from Smt. Sulochanadevi Singhania School, Thane. He was athletic since childhood. In his teenage years, his parents used to send him to summer camps for various sports like swimming, table tennis, chess, badminton, skating and football. Patil started his shooting journey when he was thirteen years old. His father, Balasaheb, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, was invited to inaugurate a shooting range in Thane. There coach Snehal Papalkar encouraged Bala Saheb that Rudraksh should try his hand in shooting. Subsequently, he started training under Papalkar at the Dronacharya Sports Academy. Interestingly, he left the game just a month after joining it. Talking about the time he left shooting in an interview, he said,
When I started shooting at Dronacharya Sports Academy, I was not much interested. I left it within a few weeks. When you say shooting, you imagine rolling on the floor, taking aim and things like paintballs but it was quite the opposite. It was really boring to stand at one place for so many hours.”
However, he returned on his mother’s insistence. Soon, Patil was competing and winning in local and national level school competitions. In 2017, he started training under Ajit Patil. At a national school meeting, she met Kolhapur coach Ajit Patil, who had trained national team stalwarts like Tejaswini Sawant and Rahi Sarnobat. There, Rudraksh’s parents convince Ajit to move to Thane to train Rudraksh full-time. Coincidentally, Ajit was going through financial crisis and was finding it difficult to keep it afloat, hence, he accepted his proposal. Initially for a few months, the duo trained at a range in the western suburbs, an hour away from Thane. Then, he started training at a school run by the People’s Education Society Trust in Thane. It was a modest dimly lit shooting range with manual targets. Describing the feature in an interview, Patil said,
This was a very basic facility. The targets were manual, the lights were not properly… So, we established a lane for ourselves by first installing new automatic targets and later, with prize money from a few tournaments, new lights.
Physical Appearance
Height: 5′ 7”
Hair Color: Black
Eye colour: black
Family
Rudraksh’s father’s name is Balasaheb Patil and mother’s name is Hemangini Patil. Both his parents are high ranking officers in the police. He has a younger brother.
Rudraksh Patil with his parents and brother
livelihood
In January 2020, he won the gold medal in the 10 meter air rifle men’s youth under-17 category at the Khelo India Youth Games 2020 in Guwahati, Assam.
Rudraksh Patil (centre) after winning the gold medal in the 10m Air Rifle Men’s Youth Under-17 category at the Khelo India Youth Games 2020 in Guwahati, Assam.
In 2021, Rudraksh Patil won a silver medal at the 64th National Shooting Championship Competition (NSCC) held in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
Rudraksh Patil (far left) after winning the silver medal at the 64th National Shooting Championship Competition (NSCC) held in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh (2021)
She won the silver medal in 10m air rifle at the 2021 ISSF Junior World Championships held in Lima, Peru. In May 2022, she won the gold medal in the 10m category at the ISSF Junior World Cup 2022 held in Suhl, Germany. Patil, Parth Makhija and Umamahesh Maddineni also won the men’s air rifle team gold medal at the World Cup.
Rudraksh Patil, Parth Makhija and Umamahesh Maddineni stand on the podium after winning the gold medal in the junior men’s 10m air rifle team event at the ISSF Junior World Cup 2022 held in Suhl, Germany.
After this, he joined the senior team. He finished seventh in the men’s 10 m air rifle event at the Baku Shooting World Cup and eleventh at the Cairo World Cup. In October 2022, Patil won the gold medal in 10 meter air rifle at the 36th National Games of India held in Gujarat by defeating Punjab’s Arjun Babuta 17-7.
Rudraksh Patil on the podium after winning the gold medal in 10 meter air rifle at the 36th National Games of India held in Gujarat (2022).
In the same month, Patil won a gold medal in the 10m category at the 2022 ISSF World Championship Rifle/Pistol held in Cairo, Egypt, thereby earning a berth for India at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Patil won the final with a dramatic 17-15 win over Italy’s Danilo Dennis Solazzo. At the championships, Patil also won a gold medal for India in the 10 meter air rifle team along with Arjun Babuta and Kiran Ankush Jadhav. This was Patil’s first time participating in the World Championships. This feat made him only the second Indian sports shooter to win a gold medal at the Men’s 10m Air Rifle World Championship after Abhinav Bindra in 2006.
Rudraksh Patil after winning gold medal in 10m air rifle at the 2022 ISSF World Championship Rifle/Pistol held in Cairo, Egypt
In December 2022, Patil won the gold medal at the ISSF President Cup 2022 in Cairo, Egypt by defeating Italy’s Danilo Solazzo in the 10m air rifle final. With the win, Patil earned the Golden Target Award, given by the ISSF to the athlete of the year in the category. Before the President’s Cup, Patil was ranked second in the ISSF rankings. The gold medal helped Patil become the world number one player. No. 1 in ISSF rankings for 10m air rifle shooters. In February 2023, Patil won the gold medal in 10m air rifle at the ISSF World Cup 2023 in Cairo by defeating Maximilian Ulbricht of Germany 16–8. She paired with Narmada Raju to win the 10m air rifle mixed team gold with one of the highest qualifying scores ever scored in the mix (635.8) at the World Cup. In March 2023, Patil won a bronze medal in the 10 m air rifle at the ISSF World Cup 2023 Bhopal. He also won a bronze medal in the mixed team air rifle event with Narmada Nitin Raju.
Rudraksh Patil (far right) after winning bronze medal in 10m air rifle at ISSF World Cup 2023 Bhopal
In September 2023, Patil, Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar and Divyansh Singh Panwar won the gold medal for India in the men’s team 10 m air rifle at the 2022 Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China. Rudraksh was the highest scorer among the three. With this feat, Patil and Tomar also qualified for the men’s 10m air rifle individual final. Patil finished fourth in the men’s 10m air rifle individual final with a score of 208.7.
Rudraksh Patil, Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar and Divyansh Singh Panwar after winning the gold medal for India in the men’s team 10m air rifle at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
award
He won the Sportsman of the Year Award (Olympic Sports) at the 2023 Sportstar Aces Awards in Mumbai.
Rudraksh Patil receives the Sportsman of the Year Award (Olympic Sports) at the 2023 Sportstar Aces Awards in Mumbai
Favorite
Facts/General Knowledge
- In his free time he likes to do research on shooting. He reads about the history of the game and other players.
- Apart from sports, Patil is also good in studies. He scored more than 90% marks in the ICSE board 12th class examination. In an interview he had said that his desire is to appear for UPSC exam.
- In an interview, he had revealed that he was very fond of food. Talking about this in an interview, he said,
I consider myself a big foodie. So, wherever I go for competitions, the first thing I do is taste the local cuisine. So, food has always been my goal. I have to control my diet before some matches but there is always an excitement when the competitions are over because I get a chance to try different things. I don’t have any favourite, but I am a big lover of non-vegetarian food.”
He once revealed that whenever he found himself in a difficult situation in a match, he would think about what was being cooked in the kitchen to take the pressure off his mind. He also said that food is one of his favorite hobbies. In fact, initially his mother used to lure him to practice shooting with food.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn