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Samresh Jung, who was born on May 19, 1970, has established his reputation as one of the finest Indian pistol shooters. Coming from a family of top-notch marksmen, Jung took to shooting like a duck to water.
An Inspector at the Central Industrial Security Force, Samresh first made his mark when he clinched two gold, one silver and one bronze in the second South Asian Federation Shooting Championship in Delhi, 1997.
At the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games, Samresh won two Gold medals, in the Men's free pistol pairs and in the Open event of 25m standard pistol pairs, both in partnership with Jaspal Rana.
After a string of impressive outings in international events, Jung's big moment arrived with the 2006 Commonwealth Games where he was in contention for eight medals. Starting off with a silver, Samresh Jung went on a gold medal-winning spree that saw him coming on top in 50m free pistol, 10m air pistol (individual & pairs), 25m centre fire pistol (pairs) and 25m standard pistol (pairs) events.
However setbacks in the individual events of 25m centre fire pistol and the 25m standard pistol put paid to Samresh's hopes of emulating the feats of swimmer Ian Thorpe and Susie O'Neill, who had won six gold each in the earlier games.
Jung was bestowed the David Dixon Award at the closing ceremony, an award to recognize the "Best Athlete of the 18th Commonwealth Games."
