The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has named awards to honor the late shooting greats, and they will be given to the best male and female athletes of the Asian Games 2026. It has instituted a new memorial trophy in the name of Randhir Singh and Jaspal Rana.
The Jaspal Rana Trophy will be awarded to the best female athlete at the Asian Games, starting with the 2026 edition in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, and the Raja Randhir Singh Memorial Trophy will be presented to the best Indian male athlete.
IOA honours late shooting greats with new trophy for Best Male and Female Athlete of Asian Games
IOA president PT Usha announced the award on Tuesday during the launch of the biography Maverick Jaspal, co-authored by senior sports journalists S Kannan and G Rajaraman.
Usha described the awards as a fitting way to honour both men’s contributions to Indian sport. “Jaspal devoted himself to developing new champions… now their names will travel with our athletes into the future,” she said. The announcement comes as the Indian contingent prepares for the upcoming Asian Games.
Jaspal emerged as a teenage shooting prodigy at the 1994 Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. He went on to become on of the greatest pistol shooters before producing two time Olympic medallist at the Paris Olympuics Manu Bhaker by coaching her.
Rana, who died in June 2026 at the age of 49, was one of India’s most successful pistol shooters. He won multiple gold medals at the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games and later served as a high-performance coach, most notably guiding Manu Bhaker to two bronze medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
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