Rahi Sarnobat
Rahi Jeevan Sarnobat is a female athlete from India who competes in the 25 meters pistol shooting event. She won her first gold medal at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India. She is the first woman to win a gold medal in shooting in an Asian Games for India - she won the gold at the 2018 Jakarta Palembang Asian Games in the women's 25 meter pistol event. She had won two gold medals in 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, the first of the two golds in coming in the 25m pistol pair event with Anisa Sayyed. She had previously won gold in the 25 m pistol event at the 2008 Youth Commonwealth Games which were held in India.
Rahi hails from Kolhapur in Maharashtra. Her inspiration is fellow Maharashtrian and 50m rifle pro World Champion Tejaswini Sawant. Sarnobat became India's first pistol shooter to win a gold medal in the World Cup when she won the 25m pistol event in the ISSF World Cup in Changwon. In the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow, she won gold in the women's 25-metre pistol. In the same year, she won the bronze medal in the 25-metre pistol team event at the 2014 Asian Games at Incheon, where she teamed up with Anisa Sayyed and Heena Sidhu.
Bronze medal in 2011 World Cup event at Fort Benning led to her selection for the London Olympics in 2012, thereby becoming the first female Indian shooter to qualify for the 25 meters sports pistol event in the Olympics.
In May 2015, Rahi was recommended for the country's prestigious, Arjuna Award by the National Rifle Association of India.
On 22 August 2018, she became the first Indian woman to become an individual Asian games gold medallist in shooting by winning the 25 meter pistol event with a Games record score of 34. She won the shoot off against her Thai opponent to bag the gold.
Rahi won the gold medal at the Munich World Cup event in 2019 and was selected for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
