Vijay Kumar (sport Shooter) - Wikipedia

Indian sport shooter

Honorary CaptainVijay Kumar SharmaAVSM, SM
The President, Shri Pranab Mukherjee presenting the Padma Shri Award to Vijay Kumar, in 2013
Personal details
Born	(1985-08-19) 19 August 1985 (age 39)Harsour, HamirpurHimachal Pradesh, India
Military service
Allegiance	India
Branch/service	Indian Army
Years of service	2001 – 2017
Rank	Honorary Captain
Awards	Padma ShriAti Vishisht Seva MedalSena MedalRajiv Gandhi Khel RatnaArjuna Award
Sports career
Sport	Shooting
Event	25 metre rapid fire pistol
Medal record Men's shooting[1] Representing  India Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games – 1 – Commonwealth Games 5 1 – Asian Games – 1 2 ISSF World Cup – 2 – Total 5 5 2 Olympic Games 2012 London 25 m rapid fire pistol ISSF World Cup 2009 Beijing 25m Rapid Fire Pistol 2011 Fort Benning 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Commonwealth Games 2006 Melbourne 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (Singles) 2006 Melbourne 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (Pairs) 2010 Delhi 25 metre rapid fire pistol pairs 2010 Delhi 25 metre rapid fire pistol singles 2010 Delhi 25-metre centre fire pistol pairs 2010 Delhi 25-metre centre fire pistol singles Asian Games 2014 Incheon 25m Centre Fire Pistol (Team) 2006 Doha 25m Rapid Fire Pistol 2010 Guangzhou 25m Centre Fire Pistol Asian Championships 2012 Doha 25 m standard pistol 2007 Kuwait City 25 m center fire pistol 2007 Kuwait City 25 m center fire pistol team 2012 Doha 25 m rapid fire pistol team

Honorary Captain Vijay Kumar Sharma, AVSM, SM (born 19 August 1985) is an Indian sport shooter. He won the silver medal in the individual 25 metre rapid fire pistol event at the 2012 Summer Olympics.[2] Kumar hails from Barsar village of Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh and is a retired Subedar Major (Warrant Officer Class I) in the Dogra Regiment (16th Battalion) Indian Army, who was later promoted to Honorary Captain Rank.[3] Vijay Kumar is supported by the Olympic Gold Quest initiative. He is the only Indian to have won a medal at 25m rapid Fire Pistol . He has been posted at Indian Army Marksmanship Unit (AMU) Mhow since 2003 where he is being coached by the Russian Pavel Smirnov.[4]

Early life and background

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Born in Himachal Pradesh, Kumar is the son of Banku Ram, a retired Indian Army subedar, and his wife Roshni Devi. According to his father, while Kumar was "always intrigued" by his father's guns, he only developed his interest in shooting after enlisting in the Indian Army.[5] Kumar joined the Indian Army in 2001 as a sepoy (private), and was inducted into the Army Marksmanship Unit (AMU) at Mhow in 2003. His prowess ensured him a direct promotion from sepoy to havildar (sergeant) by 2006.[6] He was promoted to naib subedar on 20 April 2006.[7]

Shooting career

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Early career (2006–2009)

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At the 2006 Commonwealth Games, he won two gold medals: the individual 25 meter rapid fire pistol competition and the pairs competition in the same event together with Pemba Tamang. The same year, he won a bronze medal in the Asian Games.[8] In 2006, he was awarded the Arjuna award by the Indian government.[9]

In 2007, he finished second at the Asian Championship in 25 metre center-fire pistol. He also won a silver medal at the 2009 ISSF World Cup Beijing in rapid fire pistol, where he was defeated by 0.1 points. He was promoted to subedar on 10 February 2009 (seniority from 1 July 2008)[10]

Commonwealth and Olympic glory (2010–14)

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In the 2010 Commonwealth Games, he won three gold medals and one silver. In 25 metre rapid fire pistol pairs, Gurpreet Singh and Vijay Kumar won the gold medal scoring 1162 points, setting a new Commonwealth games record. He won the 25 meter rapid fire pistol singles event and also teamed up with Harpreet Singh to win the 25-metre center fire pistol pairs event. In the 25-metre centre fire pistol singles, he finished second winning a silver, losing out to fellow Indian Harpreet Singh.

Kumar won the silver medal in the 25 m rapid fire pistol event at 2012 London Olympics.[11] He finished with an average score of 9.767 and had a score of 293 with 7 inner 10s in the first stage. Vijay's silver was the second medal for India at London 2012.[12] Earlier Kumar failed to qualify for the men's 10 m air pistol finals after finishing 31st on 28 July 2012.[13]

Kumar was chosen to be the Indian flagbearer at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.[9] The Indian trio of Vijay Kumar, Pemba Tamang and Gurpreet Singh won the silver medal in the 25m center fire event at the 2014 Asian Games, held at Incheon, South Korea. The team scored a total of 1740, two behind gold medalists China.[14]

Later career

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Vijay Kumar retired from the army in 2017, after 15 years of service. As of 2019, he is finishing a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Manav Rachna University in Faridabad, and has been offered a direct-entry position as deputy superintendent of police (DSP) by the Himachal Pradesh state government.[15]

Performance timelines

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25 metre rapid fire pistol

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2002	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Olympic Games	Not held			—	Not held			Silver	Not held
World Championships	Not held	34th569	Not held			11th578	Not held			36th569	Not held
Asian Games/AC	4th577+198.3	14th566	Not held				7th577	Not held
Commonwealth Games	Not held	Gold581+197.2	Not held			Gold583+204.5	Not held			8th274	Not held
World Cup 1	—	19th575	35th561	—	10th577
World Cup 2	—	12th576	34th567	8th580	Silver581+199.4
World Cup 3	—	37th568	14th572	15th577	16th576
World Cup 4	38th560	25th573	40th567	33rd562	21st572
World Cup Final	NQ	NQ	NQ	NQ	4th579

25 metre center-fire pistol

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2006	2007
World Championships	27th577	Not held
Asian Games/AC	9th580	Silver582
Commonwealth Games	—	Not held

25-metre standard pistol

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2007
World Championships	Not held
Asian Games/AC	12th562
Commonwealth Games	Not held
Olympics	Not held

10 metre air pistol

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2005
Olympic Games	Not held
World Championships	2nd
Asian Games/AC	—
Commonwealth Games	Not held
World Cup 1	—
World Cup 2	—
World Cup 3	89th560
World Cup 4	73rd564
World Cup Final	NQ

Awards and recognition

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• Arjuna Award (2007)[3]
• Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (2012)[16]
• Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (2013)[17]
• Padma Shri (2013)[18]

For winning the silver medal at 2012 London Olympics:

• Promotion from subedar to subedar-major on 12 August 2012.[19]
• ₹1 crore (US$120,000) cash award by the Government of Himachal Pradesh[20]
• ₹50 lakh (US$60,000) by the Government of Rajasthan.[21]

Medal bar

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Padma Shri		Ati Vishist Seva Medal
Sena Medal	Meritorious Service Medal	50th Anniversary of Independence Medal	9 Years Long Service Medal

[22]

References

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1. ^ "ISSF – International Shooting Sport Federation – issf-sports.org". issf-sports.org. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
2. ^ Vijay Kumar bags silver in London Olympics 2012
3. ^ a b NDTV Sports (3 August 2012). "Profile: Vijay Kumar". NDTV. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
4. ^ "Pavel Smirnov appointed Indian pistol team coach".
5. ^ Bisht, Gaurav (4 August 2012). "Subedar from Himachal village conquers London". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
6. ^ Bisht, Gaurav (4 August 2012). "The rise & rise of Subedar Vijay Kumar". The Times of India. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
7. ^ "Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch)". The Gazette of India. 23 September 2006. p. 1344.
8. ^ "Vijay kumar wins bronze in Asian games". Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 22 December 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
9. ^ a b "Glasgow 2014 – Vijay Kumar Profile". g2014results.thecgf.com. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
10. ^ "Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch)". The Gazette of India. 11 July 2009. p. 1198.
11. ^ "Vijay Kumar shoots silver medal in 25m Rapid Fire Pistol at London 2012 Olympics". Olympics Medal Tally. 3 August 2012. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
12. ^ "Olympics Shooting: Vijay Kumar wins Silver in 25m rapid fire pistol, becomes the fourth Indian shooter to win a medal in Olympics".
13. ^ "Vijay Kumar fails to qualify for 10m Air Pistol finals". The Times of India. London. Press Trust of India. 29 July 2012. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
14. ^ "Asian Games: Indian men win 25m centre fire pistol silver". rediff news. 26 September 2014. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
15. ^ Srinivasan, Kamesh (10 January 2019). "Olympic silver medallist Vijay turns cop". Sportstar – The Hindu. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
16. ^ "Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award and Arjuna Awards Announced". Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports. 19 August 2012. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
17. ^ "359 Republic Day Gallantry and other Defence Decorations Announced".
18. ^ "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 October 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
19. ^ "Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch)". The Gazette of India. 8 June 2013. p. 871.
20. ^ "Vijay Kumar wins Olympic silver: Re 1 cash reward announced". The Economic Times. 3 August 2012. Archived from the original on 14 August 2014.
21. ^ "Rajasthan announces cash awards for Olympic winners Vijay Kumar, Sushil Kumar, Mary Kom, Saina Nehwal and others". The Times of India. 13 August 2012.
22. ^ "Vijay Kumar : Services Best Sportsman". Hillpost. 19 October 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2019.

External links

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• http://www.indianshooting.com
• Kumar's profile at ISSF
• Vijay Kumar Opentalk with Ashwani Jain
• A blogpost on Vijay Kumar posted just before he won the Silver medal at the London Olympics 2012

v t e Recipients of Padma Shri in Sports
1950s	Balbir Singh Sr. (1957) K. D. Singh (1958) Mihir Sen (1959) Milkha Singh (1959)
1960s	Vijay Hazare (1960) Jasu Patel (1960) Arati Saha (1960) Nari Contractor (1962) Sonam Gyatso (1962) Ramanathan Krishnan (1962) Gostha Pal (1962) Polly Umrigar (1962) Syed Mushtaq Ali (1963) M. J. Gopalan (1964) Nawang Gombu (1964) Charanjit Singh (1964) H. P. S. Ahluwalia (1965) Avtar Singh Cheema (1965) D. B. Deodhar (1965) Phu Dorjee (1965) Wilson Jones (1965) Verghese Kurien (1965) Harish Chandra Singh Rawat (1965) Chandra Prakash Vohra (1965) Sonam Wangyal (1965) Kishan Lal (1966) Narendra Kumar (1965) Shankar Lakshman (1967) Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi (1967) Gurdial Singh (1967) Prithipal Singh (1967) Chandu Borde (1969)
1970s	Bishan Singh Bedi (1970) Moin-ul-Haq (1970) E. A. S. Prasanna (1970) Leslie Claudius (1971) Sailen Manna (1971) Ghaus Mohammad (1971) Chandgi Ram (1971) Kamaljeet Sandhu (1971) Gundappa Viswanath (1971) Harsh Vardhan Bahuguna (1972) B. S. Chandrasekhar (1972) Ajit Wadekar (1972) Farokh Engineer (1973) Pankaj Roy (1975) Roshan Lal Anand (1976) Meena Shah (1977)
1980s	Vasudevan Baskaran (1981) Syed Kirmani (1982) Kapil Dev (1982) Prakash Padukone (1982) Vijay Amritraj (1983) Bahadur Singh Chauhan (1983) Guru Hanuman (1983) Eliza Nelson (1983) Chand Ram (1983) Kaur Singh (1983) Raghubir Singh (1983) Satpal Singh (1983) M. D. Valsamma (1983) Geeta Zutshi (1983) Charles Borromeo (1984) Phu Dorjee (1984) Chuni Goswami (1984) D. K. Khullar (1984) Bachendri Pal (1984) Omprakesh Agrawal (1985) P. T. Usha (1985) Anupama Gokhale (1986) Swaroop Kishen (1986) Geet Sethi (1986) Mohammad Shahid (1986) Bhagyashree Thipsay (1987) Dilip Vengsarkar (1987) Viswanathan Anand (1988) Mohammad Azharuddin (1988)
1990s	Chandraprabha Aitwal (1990) P. K. Banerjee (1990) Premchand Degra (1990) Gulshan Rai (1990) Jaman Lal Sharma (1990) Taranath Narayan Shenoy (1990) Selma D'Silva (1991) Aspy Adajania (1992) Ajit Pal Singh (1992) Sriram Singh (1992) Hakam Singh (1992) Shiny Abraham (1998) Ramesh Krishnan (1998) Lila Ram (1998) Pargat Singh (1998) Karnam Malleswari (1999) Sachin Tendulkar (1999)
2000s	Santosh Yadav (2000) Mahesh Bhupathi (2001) Malathi Krishnamurthy Holla (2001) Bhuvneshwari Kumari (2001) Leander Paes (2001) Dhanraj Pillay (2001) Sunita Rani (2001) Diana Edulji (2002) Jaspal Rana (2002) Mukesh Kumar (2003) Gopal Purushottam Phadke (2003) Kanhaya Lal Pokhriyal (2003) Jyotirmoyee Sikdar (2003) Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan (2003) K. M. Beenamol (2004) Gurmayum Anita Devi (2004) Rahul Dravid (2004) Sourav Ganguly (2004) Anju Bobby George (2004) S. P. Nimbalkar (2004) Dilip Tirkey (2004) Pullela Gopichand (2005) Anil Kumble (2005) Gurbachan Singh Randhawa (2005) Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (2005) Rachel Thomas (2005) Madhumita Bisht (2006) Mohan Singh Gunjyal (2006) Mary Kom (2006) Sania Mirza (2006) Bahadur Singh Sagoo (2006) Koneru Humpy (2007) Jeev Milkha Singh (2007) Bhaichung Bhutia (2008) Bula Choudhury (2008) Pankaj Advani (2009) MS Dhoni (2009) Balbir Singh Kullar (2009) Harbhajan Singh (2009)
2010s	Ramakant Achrekar (2010) Narain Karthikeyan (2010) Saina Nehwal (2010) Virender Sehwag (2010) Vijender Singh (2010) Ignace Tirkey (2010) Kunjarani Devi (2011) Sushil Kumar (2011) VVS Laxman (2011) Shital Mahajan (2011) Gagan Narang (2011) Krishna Poonia (2011) Harbhajan Singh (mountaineer) (2011) S. M. Arif (2012) Ravi Chaturvedi (2012) Jhulan Goswami (2012) Zafar Iqbal (field hockey) (2012) Devendra Jhajharia (2012) Limba Ram (2012) Prabhakar Vaidya (2012) Premlata Agrawal (2013) Yogeshwar Dutt (2013) Vijay Kumar (2013) Girisha Nagarajegowda (2013) Dingko Singh (2013) Bajrang Lal Takhar (2013) Anjum Chopra (2014) Sunil Dabas (2014) Love Raj Singh Dharmshaktu (2014) Dipika Pallikal (2014) H. Boniface Prabhu (2014) Yuvraj Singh (2014) Mamta Sodha (2014) Saba Anjum Karim (2015) Mithali Raj (2015) P. V. Sindhu (2015) Sardara Singh (2015) Arunima Sinha (2015) Sushil Doshi (2016) Deepika Kumari (2016) Vikas Gowda (2017) Dipa Karmakar (2017) Virat Kohli (2017) Deepa Malik (2017) Sakshi Malik (2017) Shekhar Naik (2017) P. R. Sreejesh (2017) Mariyappan Thangavelu (2017) Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (2018) Somdev Devvarman (2018) Murlikant Petkar (2018) Srikanth Kidambi (2018) Sunil Chhetri (2019) Harika Dronavalli (2019) Gautam Gambhir (2019) Sharath Kamal (2019) Bombayla Devi Laishram (2019) Bajrang Punia (2019) Prashanti Singh (2019) Ajay Thakur (2019)
2020s	Oinam Bembem Devi (2020) M. P. Ganesh (2020) Zaheer Khan (2020) Jitu Rai (2020) Tarundeep Rai (2020) Rani Rampal (2020) Anitha Pauldurai (2021) Anshu Jamsenpa (2021) Mouma Das (2021) Sudha Singh (2021) Virender Singh (2021) K. Y. Venkatesh (2021) Sumit Antil (2022) Pramod Bhagat (2022) Neeraj Chopra (2022) Sankaranarayana Menon (2022) Faisal Ali Dar (2022) Vandana Katariya (2022) Avani Lekhara (2022) Brahmanand Sankhwalkar (2022) S. R. D. Prasad (2023) K. Shanathoiba Sharma (2023) Gurcharan Singh (2023) Joshna Chinappa (2024) Rohan Bopanna (2024) Purnima Mahato (2024) Harbinder Singh (2024) Satendra Singh Lohiya (2024) Gaurav Khanna (2024) Uday Vishwanath Deshpande (2024)

v t e Recipients of Khel Ratna
1991–2000	Viswanathan Anand (1991–1992) Geet Sethi (1992–1993) Homi Motivala and Pushpendra Kumar Garg (1993–1994) Karnam Malleswari (1994–1995) Kunjarani Devi (1995–1996) Leander Paes (1996–1997) Sachin Tendulkar (1997–1998) Jyotirmoyee Sikdar (1998–1999) Dhanraj Pillay (1999–2000) Pullela Gopichand (2000–2001)
2001–2010	Abhinav Bindra (2001) K. M. Beenamol and Anjali Bhagwat (2002) Anju Bobby George (2003) Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (2004) Pankaj Advani (2005) Manavjit Singh Sandhu (2006) MS Dhoni (2007) No award (2008) Mary Kom, Vijender Singh, and Sushil Kumar (2009) Saina Nehwal (2010)
2011–2020	Gagan Narang (2011) Vijay Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt (2012) Ronjan Sodhi (2013) No award (2014) Sania Mirza (2015) P. V. Sindhu, Dipa Karmakar, Jitu Rai, and Sakshi Malik (2016) Devendra Jhajharia and Sardara Singh (2017) Saikhom Mirabai Chanu and Virat Kohli (2018) Deepa Malik and Bajrang Punia (2019) Rohit Sharma, Mariyappan Thangavelu, Manika Batra, Vinesh Phogat, and Rani Rampal (2020)
2021–2030	Avani Lekhara, Neeraj Chopra, Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Lovlina Borgohain, P. R. Sreejesh, Sumit Antil, Pramod Bhagat, Krishna Nagar, Manish Narwal, Mithali Raj, Sunil Chhetri and Manpreet Singh (2021) Sharath Kamal (2022) Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (2023)

v t e Olympic medalists for India
Gold medalists	: Men's field hockey team (8 titles) : Abhinav Bindra : Neeraj Chopra
Silver medalists	: Norman Pritchard (2 titles) : Men's field hockey team : Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore : Vijay Kumar : Sushil Kumar : P. V. Sindhu : Saikhom Mirabai Chanu : Ravi Kumar Dahiya : Neeraj Chopra
Bronze medalists	: K. D. Jadhav : Men's field hockey team (4 titles) : Leander Paes : Karnam Malleswari : Vijender Singh : Sushil Kumar : Saina Nehwal : Mary Kom : Gagan Narang : Yogeshwar Dutt : Sakshi Malik : P. V. Sindhu : Lovlina Borgohain : Bajrang Punia : Manu Bhaker (2 titles) : Sarabjot Singh : Swapnil Kusale : Aman Sehrawat