Asian Games 2026: After team silver, India fail to bag men's 50m rifle 3 position individual medal

Aichi-Nagoya [Japan], September 25 (ANI): Indian shooters Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Niraj Kumar failed to secure a medal in the men's 50m rifle 3 position individual event at the ongoing Asian Games 2026 at Aichi-Nagoya on Thursday.
Aishwary managed a fifth-place finish with a score of 327.6, while Niraj finished eighth (and the last) position with a score of 299. 
The gold and silver medals went to Chinese shooters Liu Yukun (360.5) and Zhang Changhong (360.2) while the bronze medal went to Islam Satpayev of Kazakhstan (348.3). 
Earlier, the trio of Rudrankksh Patil, Aishwary Pratap Tomar and Niraj Kumar secured India a silver medal in the men's 50 m rifle 3 positions team event on Friday, marking an end of India's initial lull in the pistol shooting events.
India registered a final score of 1762-94x, falling short of gold medalists China (1766-95x). The bronze medal went to South Korea (1751-87x). After winning the gold medal at the event in the 2022 Asian Games, India lost their title to China. 
Aishwary (589-34x) stood third in the individual standings, while Niraj stood at fourth with a score of 588-34x. Both have qualified for the men's 50 m rifle 3 positions individual final. Rudrankksh, who stood at ninth spot with a score of 585-26x, could not make it to the finals. 
Coming to the mixed doubles gold, Suruchi and Kamaljeet finished with a total of 484.6 points in the final to beat South Korea, who won silver with 478.0 points. Iran claimed the bronze medal with 415.8 points, while Indonesia finished with 349.4 points and was eliminated.
The Indian duo of Suruchi and Kamaljeet also smashed the Asian record, which was previously set by Uzbekistan (481.3) earlier this year in New Delhi during the Asian Shooting Championships event.
India currently has 19 medals at the 2026 Games, comprising two golds, eight silvers and nine bronze medals.
The gold is India's second at the Asian Games so far. Earlier, the Indian women's cricket team clinched gold after defeating Sri Lanka by 147 runs in the gold medal match. (ANI)