23-05-2025
Adriyan Karmakar, with father's 2012 London Olympics rifle, wins bronze at Jr World Cup
London Olympics 50m Rifle Prone fourth-place finisher and World Cup medallist Joydeep Karmakar remembers the time when he took his then five-old son Adriyan Karmarkar to the National Championships in Kerala in 2010. It was the first time Karmarkar Jr would see his father shoot in a competition.
On Friday, Adriyan Karmakar, with his father's London Olympics rifle in hand, won his second medal in the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany. Karmakar Sr was reminded of that day in Kerala upon seeing his son win the 50m Three Position bronze medal in Germany.
'Adriyan was five or something when he accompanied us to the shooting nationals in Kerala. Before the final, when he heard my name, he started crying and remained adamant that he had to shoot with the rifle. Maybe that was an instinct he was born with. The organisers were nice enough to get the final ceremonially started with him just aiming the shot with the empty rifle and that's how the final started,' shared Karmarkar Sr while speaking with The Indian Express from Kolkata.
Earlier this week, Karmarkar Jr had won the silver in the men's 50m Prone event, an event in which his father bagged the fourth place in London, and has been discontinued in the Olympics since 2017. The 20-year-old made a new junior national record of 626.7 to finish behind Sweden's Jesper Johansson earlier this week. The string of good results have come after struggles that Adriyan had been facing over the past few months.
'He had changed his jacket and trousers apart from shoes and the prone sling and it was taking some time to adjust to those. So these medals will inspire him a lot,' adds Karmarkar Sr.
Back in 2015, three years after he started shooting, Karmarkar Jr had become the youngest competitor to compete in nationals with a special permission granted by NRAI to compete. Eight years later, the youngster would win his first Khelo India Youth Games title in the 50m Rifle 3P event and would follow with defending his title in 2024. In 2023, Karmaklar Jr would finish sixth in the same event in Asian Junior Championships in Changwon, Korea and had a 27th place finish in 2022 Junior World Championships in Cairo. Karmarkar Sr also remembers a phase in his son's career when he was finishing fourth repeatedly.
'I have never talked to him about any emotions for my fourth-place finish in the Olympics. There was a phase in his career when he would finish fourth repeatedly and was getting frustrated saying things like, 'Mere sath hi kyun ho raha (Why is it happening with me alone). I just told him that the fact that you are finishing fourth and making the finals every time and not missing the final speaks of your consistency.
'He has been shooting with the same rifle with which I shot in the London Olympics with some minor barrel repair; his only focus is to shoot his best,' adds Karmarkar Sr.
On Friday, Karmakar Jr started the final having shot 588 with a fourth spot in the qualification. In the final, which saw the presence of Paris Olympian and senior World Cup medallist Romain Aufrere of France, Junior World Champion Jens Oestli of Norway, European bronze medallist and Junior World Championship silver medallist Jesper Johansson of Sweden, Junior World Champion medallist Griffin Lake of USA among prominent names, Karmarkar Jr made sure that he was among the top four.
The standing elimination series saw the Indian maintaining his composure and edging out Johansson to be among the last three and winning the bronze.
'Adriyan was facing some problems in recent times in prone but then it's not like that he shoots very bad in prone. The silver earlier with the new junior national record would have set things right for him and he showed that in 3P qualification too with his best series score of 197 coming in prone out of the three positions. In the final too, he had a score of 153.4 in prone as compared to the 151.9 in the kneeling position. And it helped him in standing series,' said Karmarkar.
Nitin Sharma is an Assistant Editor with the sports team of The Indian Express. Based out of Chandigarh, Nitin works with the print sports desk while also breaking news stories for the online sports team. A Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award recipient for the year 2017 for his story 'Harmans of Moga', Nitin has also been a two-time recipient of the UNFPA-supported Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity for the years 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Nitin mainly covers Olympics sports disciplines with his main interests in shooting, boxing, wrestling, athletics and much more. The last 17 years with The Indian Express has seen him unearthing stories across India from as far as Andaman and Nicobar to the North East. Nitin also covers cricket apart from women's cricket with a keen interest. Nitin has covered events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2017 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships.
An alumnus of School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, from where he completed his Masters in Mass Communications degree, Nitin has been an avid quizzer too. A Guru Nanak Dev University Colour holder, Nitin's interest in quizzing began in the town of Talwara Township, a small town near the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border. When not reporting, Nitin's interests lie in discovering new treks in the mountains or spending time near the river Beas at his hometown. ... Read More
