As the year grew old, the ages of India's shooting champions got younger and if the medals won and world records owned by the incredibly talented teenagers are anything to go by, better days await the sport.
While the podiums and records are a fair reflection of shooting's unprecedented upswing over the last 12 months, the soaring expectations from its young guns speak volumes about the talent at its disposal.
Manu Bhaker won almost everywhere, the rare blip being her inexplicable meltdown at the Asian Games finals. The 16-year-old girl was favoured to beat women double her age and experience in the showpiece and when the script did not unfold on expected lines, she exited the 25m range teary-eyed.
Heightened expectations from a teenager competing in a top-flight senior event is rare, but the breed that Bhaker belongs to is also rare. Teen pistol sensation Saurabh Chaudhary, who can now do without an introduction, is a shooter of Bhaker's ilk.
Out of nowhere, Esha Singh, 13, announced her arrival in spectacular fashion, nonchalantly trouncing the established names, Bhaker included, as well as Heena Sidhu on her way to winning three gold medals at the Nationals.
In the same tournament, Mehuli Ghosh's partner in winning the junior mixed team and youth mixed team air rifle events was a 10-year old Abhinav Shaw.
Taking the sport by storm was Chaudhary, who is as young as Jhajjar girl Bhaker and equal in skill and achievements. He not only won medals, he won them in gold, and with records to boost on a couple of occasions.
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The teenaged shooters dominated the sport as if they had been pulling the trigger for years.
Anjum Moudgil, Mehuli, Saurabh, Bhaker, Anish and Esha Singh -- in descending order of age -- are among the string of young talents who made headlines.
The progress has left everyone hopeful of good times ahead, including India's lone individual Olympic gold medallist, Abhinav Bindra.
"In shooting we are pretty developed. There were 27 medals in the World Championship in which we did fantastically well. We just need to keep our heads focused and continue that process," Bindra said recently.
"We seem to be quite fortunate because we have a string of young shooting athletes, coming through day in and day out, and I think that's a very positive sign for the long-term development of shooting," the 36-year-old added.
Saying that the sport enjoyed a phenomenal year, simply riding on the teenagers, would be appropriate.
On her part, Bhaker said, "We saw the youth power this year, it feels really good that teenagers are doing so well and achieving their goals. We have set our goals and are working on that only. It is very surprising that suddenly all of us are doing so well."
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