It’s a hard loss for the game. The National Rifle Association of India has put out word that the legend and high-performance coach has died following a medical emergency earlier in the week. It puts a period to 30 years of work that defined an era for India’s pistol shooters.
A sudden end to a key assignment
He was coming back from the ISSF World Cup in Munich when he let it be known he wasn’t feeling well. Once he put down in New Delhi, he was taken to Max Hospital in Saket. The NRAI has since confirmed he didn’t make it, which is a blow to the elite squad he was in the middle of putting together.
The timing of it all
You have to wonder about the moment. India’s pistol side has been in the spotlight for its depth, and here we are. Rana was the High-Performance Coach for them, and as of February 2025, he was in charge of the 25m pistol. In a way, his was the playbook the team followed.
Champion first, then the one who made them
Long before he was in the coach’s box, he was the one with the gun. In the 90s, Rana was the one to beat on the world stage, with wins at the Asian and Commonwealth Games to his name. He put a face on the sport when it was still trying to find its footing in India.
When he made the switch to coaching, he changed the bar for what we should expect. He took over the junior side in 2012 and put in place a line of talent that just kept coming. He was big on the mental side of it, too – you had to be able to handle the noise of a real match in practice.
They were always there
He had a way of making a kid into a contender. Saurabh Chaudhary, Anish Bhanwala, Chinki Yadav – they all went through with him. You could spot the common thread: no-nonsense technique and the kind of repetition that makes you ready for anything.
Then there was the story with Bhaker
If you want to point to where Rana’s coaching left its mark, look at his work with Manu Bhaker. They put in the hours for the big moments, and it paid off in Paris in 2024 with her two bronzes in the 10m air pistol and the mixed team event.
She put the medals around her neck, but you can see Rana in the work behind them. He made sure they were prepared for every little thing, from the clock to the distractions. That’s the kind of edge you only notice when the Olympic lights are on you.
How he did it, and the kudos
Rana was exacting, but not inflexible. He’d have you run your process and then put it to the test in a mock final. People who worked with him will tell you he had a way of keeping you level-headed when you’re down to the last millimetre.
It was all seen. He was given the Dronacharya in 2020 for the way he pushed the sport and the people in it. It was a formality, really; everyone in the know already thought of him as a force, both in front of and behind the firing line.
Some of the highlights of his time with us:
– 49 years old when he passed
– In the driver’s seat of the junior pistol side since 2012
– The one who saw Manu Bhaker through to her 2024 Olympic success
– 2020 Dronacharya Award winner
– Made 25m pistol High-Performance Coach in Feb 2025
Where do we go from here?
He was right in the thick of it with the national programme up until the end. Now his systems and the way he ran things are part of the fabric of the sport. The young ones he put in shape are the proof of that.
It’s a jolt, and it will be a while before we get over it. But the confidence he instilled in Indian pistol shooting is still there. Jaspal Rana showed us how to stay cool under fire. We’ll feel the void, but he left us with a plan to follow.
