Joydeep Karmakar defends India’s shooters after Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games showing
Former Olympian Joydeep Karmakar on September 26, 2026 defended India’s shooting contingent after what he described as an underwhelming campaign at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, challenging the criticism aimed at competitors who took silver medals.
India sent a 30-member shooting squad to compete across 28 rifle, pistol and shotgun events at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Range, with Manu Bhaker, Rudrankksh Patil, Esha Singh and Vidarsa Vinod among those entered in multiple individual competitions. Karmakar, who has frequently questioned the Indian shooting federation’s strategic planning at major multi-sport events, said he found the reaction to the team’s results difficult to reconcile. The only gold for India in shooting at Aichi-Nagoya came from Suruchi Singh and Kamaljeet in the 10m air pistol mixed team event.
“In any sporting discipline at the Asian Games, a fight in the quarters or a heat or a qualification is hailed and spoken about. Even if you win a bronze medal, superlative! But in shooting, even a silver medal draws flak,” he said, asking whether this comes from genuinely high standards or simply unfair expectations from occasional followers of the sport.
Elavenil Valarivan secured silver in the women’s 10m air rifle individual event and the women’s team also finished second behind China. Himanshu Dhillon took silver in the men’s 10m air rifle, while Rudrankksh Patil won bronze in the same event. The men’s 50m rifle 3 positions team also returned a silver medal.
On the shotgun range India collected three bronzes: the women’s skeet team, the men’s skeet team and the mixed skeet team.
India had targeted a performance comparable to Hangzhou 2022, where the country won 22 shooting medals including seven golds. Prior to this edition, shooting was India’s second most prolific Asian Games sport with 80 medals and 16 golds overall, trailing only athletics.
With the shooting competition still underway at Aichi-Nagoya, as of September 25, 2026 India’s shooters had won 11 medals overall, one gold, six silver and four bronze.
