Asian Games 2026 Pistol Shooters Redeemed Themselves With Gold Says NRAI Chief Kalikesh Singh

TheBetterAndhra2 hours agoLast Updated: September 25, 2026

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Asian Games 2026 shooting gold winners Suruchi Singh and Kamaljeet with NRAI chief Kalikesh Singh — NRAI chief Kalikesh Singh praised Suruchi Singh and Kamaljeet after India’s 10m air pistol mixed team gold.

Asian Games 2026 witnessed India’s shooting contingent claim its first gold medal of the competition as Suruchi Singh and Kamaljeet won the mixed 10m air pistol event with an Asian-record score of 484.6 points. The gold was India’s second at the Games after the women’s cricket team’s title.

India finally gets shooting gold at Asian Games 2026

India’s Suruchi Singh and Kamaljeet won the gold medal in the mixed 10m air pistol final with an Asian-record score of 484.6 points, securing India’s second gold medal at the Asian Games after the women’s cricket team.

Suruchi Singh and Kamaljeet set Asian record

“Great day for Indian shooting; we finally got the elusive gold after a bit of a disappointment. However, our shooter redeemed themselves well with an Asian record and a gold. Amazing performance from Suruchi and Kamaljeet. We have a lot of shooting left here, and I am hopeful India will do well in the remaining events,” Kalikesh told Thebetterandhra.com on Friday.

Earlier, India drew a blank in the men’s and women’s 10m pistol team, and in the individual event, Kamaljeet, Kedarling Balakrishna and Aakash Bhardwaj missed out on a medal in the men’s 10m air pistol team and also failed to qualify for the individual finals.

Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh and Rahi Sarnobat eye 25m pistol medals

Moreover, there was an agonising end for the Indian trio Esha Singh, Manu Bhaker and Suruchi Inder Singh in the team final as they lost the medal as the two inner-10s stand between them and bronze medallists Vietnam. Later, Manu finished fifth in the individual final. But the mixed team of Suruchi and Kamajeet broke the draw and got India the elusive gold on Friday.

Kalikesh Singh calls for more gold medals

Reflecting on India’s disappointing show in the pistol team and individual event, the NRAI chief added, “In the first two days we got five medals, then skeet contributed three, and today we got two medals. This is a fairly big number of medals, but what we were missing out on was gold. When you go zero in the finals, it depends on the the performance at that time of that athlete. We have to figure out how we have to work with an athlete, coaching and performance team so that we can get more golds.”