India dominate Asian Rifle/Pistol Championship standings with 94 medals

India signed off in dominant style at the Asian Rifle/Pistol Championship, finishing comfortably atop the medal standings with a remarkable haul of 94 medals — 51 gold, 23 silver and 20 bronze — at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range. The hosts capped their campaign by adding six gold, three silver and four bronze medals on the final day to underline their supremacy on the continental stage.

On the concluding day of competition, Indian shooters delivered a clean sweep of the podium in both the 25m Center Fire Pistol and 25m Pistol Junior events. They also secured three medals in the 50m Rifle Prone events across senior and junior categories, in addition to clinching four team gold medals to finish the championship on a resounding high.

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In the 25m Center Fire Pistol event, Amanpreet Singh claimed gold with a combined score of 589-24x across the Precision and Rapid stages. Olympian Gurpreet Singh followed with silver after shooting 584-20x, while Ankur Goel secured bronze with 570-11x. The trio combined effectively to also capture the team gold medal in the discipline.

Suraj Sharma continued his impressive run this season by winning gold in the 25m Pistol Junior event with a score of 585-25x. Mukesh Nelavalli added to his medal tally at the championship by taking silver with 582-21x, while Deaflympics medallist Abhinav Deshwal earned bronze with a score of 573-17x. The three shooters then teamed up to secure the team gold in the junior event.

In the 50m Rifle Prone senior women’s competition, Olympian Sift Kaur Samra delivered a strong performance to win silver with a score of 623.2. Veteran shooter and 2010 World Champion Tejaswani Sawant marked a memorable return to the podium by clinching bronze, her first international medal in five years. Yelizaveta Bezrukova of Kazakhstan claimed the gold medal.

Sift and Tejaswani, alongside Manini Kaushik, combined to win team gold for India in the event.

In the junior women’s 50m Rifle Prone category, Dhavalika Devi Nyamurus secured a bronze medal with a score of 614.1. Kazakhstan’s Tomiris Amanova and Darya Ponomarenko won gold and silver respectively. India’s Prachi Gaikwad, Anuskha Thokur and Devi then joined forces to capture the team gold medal, adding further sheen to an already glittering campaign for the host nation.