India take silver in Men's 50m Rifle 3P at Asian Games 2026; Aishwary, Niraj advance to individual final
India’s men’s 50m rifle three positions team won silver at the Asian Games 2026 on Friday as Rudrankksh Patil, Aishwary Pratap Tomar and Niraj Kumar secured a podium finish, lifting the country’s overall medal count to 19.
The new total followed the addition of the rifle team silver to a haul that before Friday stood at 2 golds, 7 silvers and 9 bronzes. The result reversed the outcome from the 2022 Asian Games, when India had taken gold in the same event, and two members of the current trio are due to return to competition in the individual event.
Aishwary Pratap Tomar posted an individual score of 589-34x to finish third overall and earn a place in the men’s 50m rifle three positions individual final, while Niraj Kumar’s 588-34x put him fourth and also through to the final. Rudrankksh Patil recorded 585-26x, which left him ninth and outside the cut for the individual final.
The Indian team total was 1762-94x, with China claiming gold on 1766-95x — four points clear of India — and South Korea taking bronze with 1751-87x.
Event-by-event scoring for the Indian side showed the kneeling series produced 294 and then 587 points across its two rounds; prone added 297 in the first round, taking the total to 884 and rising to 1180 after the second; standing yielded 291 in both rounds, closing the team on 1762.
In squash, Joshna Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar advanced to the mixed doubles semi-finals with an 11-3, 11-5 quarter-final win over Filipino opponents, guaranteeing India at least a bronze in the event. At 40, Chinappa reached this stage 16 years after her first Asian Games medal; the pair will meet Hong Kong’s Lee Ka Yi and Tang Ming Hong in Saturday’s semi-final. Abhay Singh and Anahat Singh also secured semi-final places in the squash singles, ensuring medals in those events.
In table tennis mixed doubles, eighth-ranked Diya Chitale and Manush Shah beat Hong Kong’s world No. 4 duo Wong Chun Ting and Doo Hoi Kem 3-1 (11-6, 13-15, 11-9, 11-5) to reach the semi-finals. It is only the second time an Indian pair has secured a mixed doubles table tennis medal at the Asian Games, the first being Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra’s bronze at the 2018 Jakarta Games; Chitale and Shah will next face China’s Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha.
Aishwary Pratap Tomar and Niraj Kumar will contest the men’s 50m rifle three positions individual final later in the Games, Chinappa and Senthilkumar meet Lee and Tang in the squash mixed doubles semi-final on Saturday, and Chitale and Shah face Wang and Sun in the table tennis mixed doubles semi-final.