Indian shooters top Asian Championships tally with 50 gold medals

Indian team registered its best ever showing, finishing with an unprecedented 50 gold medals to top the tally for the first time during the 16th Asian Shooting Championship in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.

The senior team won six gold, two silver and three bronze medals across 15 Olympics events across the rifle, pistol, and shotgun disciplines. Indians finished behind China, who won eight gold medals.

“It is a spectacular performance, and it is quite clear that the confidence of the shooting ecosystem is sky-high and significantly boosted by our performance at the Paris Olympics,” Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo, president of National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), said. He was particularly pleased by performance of juniors.

Indian junior shooters reiterated the depth the country has in the sport by completely dominating all the Olympic events to win 10 golds to go with four silver and bronze medals each.

India ended the championship just short of the 100-medal mark, with 26 silver and 23 bronze medals to go with the 50 gold. The host was second with 70 medals and 21 gold while China was third overall with 15 gold and 37 medals.

Elavenil Valarivan’s second Asian crown in women’s air rifle — that she won with a continental record score — was one the highlights of the event alongside Neeru Dhanda’s first-ever Asian Championship gold in women’s trap, Sift Kaur Samra’s first Asian title in women’s 50 rifle 3 positions (3P) and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar’s defense of his men’s 3P title.

Published on Aug 30, 2025