Asian Games: Two skeet bronze medals brighten India’s day at the shooting range

Skeet shooting came to India’s rescue at the Asian Games on Wednesday as the men’s and women’s team both won bronze medals, giving the country’s campaign at the shooting range a much-needed boost.

The women’s team of Parinaaz Dhaliwal, Raiza Dhillon and Maheshwari Chauhan made history by winning India’s first Asian Games medal in skeet. The trio finished with 331 points out of 375 to take bronze behind China and Kazakhstan.

China dominated the competition with a Games record 357 points, while Kazakhstan took silver with 336.

India’s score was compiled over three rounds of qualifying, with each batsman completing five runs of 25 runs. Parinaaz and Raiza finished on 111 while Maheshwari contributed 109.

Raiza and Parinaaz also reached the singles final, but neither could add to India’s medal tally.

Raiza, an Olympian, stayed in the sights deep into the eight-shooter final before finishing fourth with 23 points. Parinaaz was unable to reproduce her qualifying form and was the first shooter to be eliminated, finishing in eighth place in the final.

China’s Jiang Yiting produced the individual performance of the day to win gold with 35 points to equal the world record.

MEN ADD SECOND BRONZE

Anantjeet Singh Naruka, Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Bhavtegh Singh Gill followed the women’s team to the podium and scored 346 points to win bronze in the men’s team event.

Qatar won gold with 353, while Kuwait finished second with 348. However, Naruka had to rue another missed opportunity in the individual competition.

The 28-year-old player was among the leading contenders throughout the qualification period. He shot 96 out of 100 over the first two days to sit joint top of the standings alongside three others.

A score of 23 in his final qualifying round may have overshadowed his performance a bit, but his total of 119 was enough to send him through to the eight-man final.

Naruka remained in contention but eventually finished fourth.

Qatar’s Rashid Saleh Al-Athba took the gold with an Asian record 34. The veteran shooter, who has World Cup medals and Asian championships to his credit, held off China’s Liu Jianlin who took silver with 33.

Bronze was won by Lee Meng-Yuan of Chinese Taipei with 29.

– The end

Issued by:

Saurabh Kumar

Published on:

23 Sep 2026 17:42 IST