Coach, Champion, Gentleman: Madhya Pradesh Remembers Jaspal Rana

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The sports fraternity in Madhya Pradesh recalled shooting legend and coach Jaspal Rana as an extraordinary shooter, an excellent coach and a thorough gentleman.

The 49-year-old Rana passed away at a Delhi hospital on Friday following a cardiac seizure. He had suffered a heart attack when he was in Munich (Germany) for the International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup.

Jaivardhan Singh Chauhan, a coach at the Shooting Academy, who was also in Munich, said that Rana complained of mild discomfort and chest pain in Munich. “But we all ignored it as some minor issue and took a flight to Delhi.

On the way, he again felt uncomfortable and was taken to a hospital immediately after landing. It is very shocking. Forty-nine is no age to go,” Chauhan said. Rana was a consultant coach at MP Shooting Academy from 2019-2022.

“I brought him to the shooting academy for about three years. He was an amazing shooter and I knew him well,” former Sports Minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia told Free Press. “His sudden and untimely passing has left the shooting and the sports fraternity without one of its strongest pillars,” she said.

Scindia recalled that Rana mentored Chinki Yadav, a shooter from Bhopal, who won the gold medal in the women’s 25m pistol category in the Shooting World Cup.

Published on: Saturday, June 13, 2026, 09:14 AM IST