A last-minute gutsy call pays off as Kamaljeet and Suruchi win India’s first shooting gold

India finally had something to celebrate in the 10m air pistol event at the 2026 Asian Games and it came from a pair that was put together at the last minute. Suruchi Singh and Kamaljeet combined for a dominant performance to win gold in the mixed team 10m air pistol event on Friday, setting a new Asian Games record.

Their gold was India’s first in shooting at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games and the country’s second overall after the women’s cricket team opened India’s gold medal account.

The timing of the medal was all the more significant for India’s 10m air pistol contingent, which endured a disappointing campaign till Friday. India had won gold in the men’s 10m air pistol team event and gold and silver in the women’s individual event at the previous Asian Games, but there was no medal in the event this time.

Even Manu Bhaker, Olympic medalist and one of India’s biggest hopes, he was absent from the podium after reaching the women’s 10m air pistol final. India also failed to win medals in the men’s and women’s team events.

So the mixed team event was the last chance to salvage something from the 10m air pistol campaign. The National Rifle Association of India made a bold call ahead of the event, swapping the men’s designated shooter in the pair with Suruchi.

Kedarling Balakrishna Uchaganve was initially appointed alongside Suruchi. But after Thursday’s men’s qualifiers, where Kamaljeet was India’s top performer with 580 points to finish ninth, just one point short of the individual finals, the NRAI decided to bring him into the mixed team combination.

Meanwhile, Kedarling endured a tough qualifying round to finish 35th with 568 points.

The change could hardly work better.

A DOMINANT ASIAN GAMES RECORD

Kamaljeet and Suruchi stormed into the medal round after winning the qualifier with 587 points, including 29 inside 10s. They started with 196 in the opening series before adding 195 in the second to reach 391 with 20 runs remaining. Another 196 in the third series took them to 587 and secured their place in the final.

And once there, they pulled away from the field.

The Indian pair finished with 484.6 points, a remarkable 6.6 points ahead of South Korea’s Suhyeon Hong and Gaeun Choo who took silver with 478.0. Iran took the bronze with 415.8.

The difference was striking in a sport where medals are often decided by minute differences. India was also just 3.8 points behind the world record. Screenshot from the Asian Games website

It was a remarkable turnaround for both goalscorers, who had suffered disappointing individual campaigns just a day earlier. Kamaljeet came agonizingly close to the men’s individual final, missing out by a single point, while Suruchi finished 26th in the women’s qualifiers and missed out on the final.

Instead, the two found themselves together in an event that neither was originally intended to wrestle as a pair.

They responded with the best shooting of the Games and ensured that the wait for a gold medal from the range did not go beyond the sixth day of the Asian Games.

– The end