Veteran skeet shooter Mairaj Ahmad Khan is hoping to cap more than three decades in the sport with a maiden Asian Games medal, while predicting a strong rise for Indian shooting over the next four years.
At 50, Mairaj is among the oldest members of the Indian squad for the Asian Games and is currently training at the 15-day shotgun preparatory camp at the SAI Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range (KSSR).
The camp, which runs until September 14, has 12 shooters — six each in trap and skeet — preparing for the competition, which begins on September 21 at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Gallery in Toyota City, Japan.
Mairaj, a two-time Olympian and the first Indian skeet shooter to qualify for the Olympics when he made the cut for Rio 2016, believes staying focused on the present will be crucial at the Asian Games.
“Look, every athlete expects to win. But as far as I believe, if you go into a competition with fewer expectations, it is better for you,” the experienced skeet shooter told SAI Media. “Because, if you go with expectations, you are already in the future; you are not in the present. You have to focus on what you need to do at that very particular moment.”
The 50-year-old, who began shooting competitively in 1994, is pleased with the support available to the national squad ahead of the continental showpiece.
“We are preparing very well for the Asian Games. There is a whole team here at our shotgun camp at the Dr. Karni Singh Range (KSSR),” Mairaj continued. “SAI has arranged everything for us – we have S&C coaches, physios, our foreign coach Riccardo Filippelli, our head coach Amrinder Singh Cheema, and all other staff, are here. I think it is a very useful camp for the preparation, and it will work, Inshallah, at the Asian Games.”
Mairaj also sees significant potential in Indian shotgun shooting, with both trap and skeet making steady progress.
“I think skeet and trap, if we talk about shotgun, both have come up very well, and in the coming time it will become even better,” Mairaj continued.
He believes government-backed initiatives have given the next generation of Indian shooters a stronger platform than was available during his early years in the sport.
“The platforms that the Indian Government, the Sports Ministry and SAI have created at this moment, programs and platforms such as Khelo India, are going to be very important for the coming generation. Unfortunately, we didn’t have all these programmes in our time, so maybe we lost a little time in winning Olympic or World Cup medals.
“But in the coming time, the platform will be very big for the Indian team, and I think the Indian team will be the best team in the coming four years — in trap, skeet and also rifle and pistol. Neeru Dhanda, who recently won a historic gold in trap at the ISSF Shotgun World Cup 2026 in Lonato, was a part of the Khelo India platform and was also a part of the Bhopal Academy.”
(Inputs from SAI)
