India’s five standout shooting moments at the Asian Games 2026
India produced several memorable moments in shooting at the Asian Games 2026, with standout performances across rifle, pistol and trap events.
India finished second in the shooting medal table at the Asian Games 2026, taking 3 gold, 8 silver and 4 bronze medals. The campaign was described as a major disappointment overall after India had won seven golds at the previous edition, five of them in team events. Pistol events proved underwhelming, with India managing just a couple of medals across the eight pistol events. Despite an overall average campaign, the team delivered particular highlights in the trap disciplines and a rare double podium in rifle.
For the first time in Asian Games history India won two medals in the same individual rifle event, the men’s 10m air rifle, when Himanshu Dhillon and Rudrankksh Patil claimed silver and bronze respectively. They were the only double podium finishers for India in shooting at these Games. Rudrankksh, who had finished fourth at the previous edition, secured his first individual Asian Games medal, while Himanshu recorded an impressive Games debut by taking silver.
Suruchi Singh and Kamaljeet delivered India’s opening shooting gold by winning the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event. The pair prevailed by a margin of 6.6 points over the silver-medal position. Neither shooter had reached the individual finals, but both produced composed performances in qualification and the final to close out the victory. For Suruchi the mixed-team title came after a disappointing individual outing, with a strong qualification and final showing underpinning the comeback.
Neeru Dhanda emerged as India’s most successful shooter at these Games, becoming the only Indian to win two gold medals at the edition. Neeru, coming off a recent ISSF World Cup victory in Italy, claimed gold in the women’s individual trap and then teamed with Kynan Chenai to win the mixed trap gold. In doing so she became the first Indian woman to win a trap medal at the Asian Games and the first Indian shooter to take gold in that event.
Esha Singh produced a dramatic performance to claim India’s first and only individual pistol medal, taking silver in the women’s 25m pistol after an extended final. She endured five shoot-offs, initially tied for second with North Korea’s Kim Hyon-suk which led to three shoot-offs between them. The competition was briefly halted during the second shoot-off because of a technical issue involving the officials; Esha won the third shoot-off against Kim and then faced two further shoot-offs against a Chinese shooter before eventually securing the silver. Even though she eventually lost the shoot-off, Esha had done enough to secure the silver medal.
India finished the shooting programme with 15 medals at the Asian Games 2026.
