Niraj Kumar was not even in his teens when Chain Singh first competed in seniors. Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar was still shooting balloons at village fairs when the seasoned Armyman won his first major international medals, the Asian Championship gold and Asian Games bronze in 2014.
But as the two Gen Zs — Tomar, especially — grew up to become the faces of the gun-toting army of teenage shooters, Chain, now 35, became the forgotten man of Indian shooting, a face in the crowd, until Friday.
It’s probably a testament to the depth of Indian shooting that the three shooters cutting across generations shared the space in the final of the 50m Rifle 3-Positions at the ISSF World Cup in Buenos Aires. And it was the certified journeyman, not the young guns, who finished on the podium.
Chain Singh won India’s first medal of the new shooting season, clinching a bronze with a score of 443.7 to pip Tomar, who finished fourth after scoring 432.6. Kumar was the second to exit the eight-man final, having managed a tally of 402.5.
This is Chain’s first individual World Cup medal — he won a team medal in 2021 and 2022 each — and his first individual medal in any competition since the 2014 Asian Games.
Chain’s grit
Beyond these numbers lies the story of Chain’s grit and patience. Growing up during peak insurgency in Doda, Kashmir, surrounded by violence, Chain spent his early years scared of guns and loving cricket. It was only in the Army that he shed his fear of firing and transformed into a prodigy. He announced his arrival on the big stage with the two Asian medals in 2014, making him one of the medal prospects for the Rio Olympics.
Medal🎖️ Alert ‼️ India 🇮🇳 open account at @issf_official World Cup. Senior pro army man Chain Singh with an ISSF medal after three years👏 💥🎉 🔥 #ISSFWorldCup #IndianShooting #TeamIndia #Shooting #IndianShootingTeam #3P pic.twitter.com/E5sqvuREFS
— NRAI (@OfficialNRAI) April 4, 2025
But as he prepared for the 2016 Games in Lausanne, Chain was hospitalised after being diagnosed with pneumonia and pulmonary embolism. He recovered in time for the Olympics but could only manage a 23rd-place finish in the 3-position and 36th in rifle prone, an event that’s now discontinued at the Olympics.
“More than physically, it was a mental battle and I am glad that my mental resolve helped me come out of that,” Chain told The Indian Express.  “While I recovered ahead of the Rio Olympics, the next three years saw me on medicines, I had to cut back the physical regime, which I followed earlier. Now to win my first individual medal in ISSF World Cup is a special moment for me.” Chain added that for the last three years he has been training under foreign coach Thomas Farnik and commanding officer at MHOW Col Naren Babu. “As I started more physical and strength training starting 2019, it would help me physically too, seeing how much the 3P event demands.”
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In the post-Rio shake-up, which coincided with the remarkable rise of a young batch including the likes of Manu Bhaker, Chain slipped into oblivion. On the back of solid performances domestically, he returned to the national team post-Paris Olympics and in the year’s first competition, showed signs of regaining his lost touch.
For a long time, it seemed like Tomar would win a medal — a bronze as Istvan Peni, the gold medallist, and China’s Jiaming Tian had taken a big lead. But a poor 7.8 on the 41st shot, out of a maximum 45, meant Chain leapfrogged his compatriot into medal positions. And he held on masterfully to end his 11-year wait for an individual international medal.
“Kneeling position required a lot of balance and since it was windy, I struggled a bit initially,” Chain said. “But then once I got set later in the kneeling stage, it helped me in a prone position. The Stability in prone helped with the scores and my focus was to regain my ground with each shot coming. I repeated that process till the final shot of mine. To edge out Tomar for the third spot is always tough but then that’s life. We are roommates also and we keep learning from each other a lot apart from discussing our shooting.”
Double Olympics bronze medalist Manu Bhaker returned a score of 291 out of a possible 300 to lie fourth in the first precision round of the women’s 25m pistol qualifiers. The final takes place on Saturday.
