Teenager Rudrankksh Patil had a liking for cricket in his growing years at Thane’s Hiranandani School and then Singhania College, but on the insistence of his IPS officer father Balasaheb, he decided to pursue shooting professionally, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Patil, 19, has finished on the podium in almost every competition he has participated in, be it the Junior World Championships, Junior World Cups or Senior World Cups. On Monday, he helped India win its first gold medal of this Games, winning the 10m air rifle men’s team title alongside compatriots Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Divyansh Singh Panwar with a world record score of 1983.7. Korea (1890.1) finished second while China (1888.2) took the bronze.