India's long wait for a shooting gold at the Aichi General Shooting Range finally ended on the sixth day of competition, and it did so in emphatic fashion. Suruchi Phogat and Kamaljeet not only captured the 10m air pistol mixed team title on Friday, September 25, 2026, but also set a new Asian Games record in the process, underlining a performance that combined accuracy, resilience and timely redemption.
The pair finished with 484.6 points in the final, a total that was enough to secure gold and restore some momentum to India's campaign in the shooting range. For both athletes, the victory carried added significance because each had endured underwhelming individual outings earlier in the meet. Together, however, they found the rhythm that had eluded them alone, and India was rewarded with a result that briefly brightened an otherwise mixed shooting campaign.
Suruchi was the dominant force throughout the event. She began by setting the tone in qualification, shooting a series of 99, 97 and a perfect 100 to finish with 296, the highest score among all shooters in the field. Kamaljeet, while not matching her consistency, still contributed a solid 291 to ensure India stayed in contention. That early advantage proved crucial, because Suruchi carried the same control and precision into the final, repeatedly landing shots in the high 10s and keeping India ahead from the outset.
In the medal round, Suruchi produced 245.7 points, once again demonstrating the kind of composure that separates a strong contender from a champion. Kamaljeet added 238.9, and while his score was more modest, the combined total was enough to seal the title and rewrite the Games record. The result was a reminder that mixed team shooting often rewards balance as much as brilliance, and on this occasion India had enough of both.
The gold also offered partial relief in a broader context that has not been entirely kind to India in shooting at these Games. The country has already lost three of the seven gold medals it had won in the previous edition, and Friday's triumph only partly offset the disappointment of those missed defences. India's 22-medal haul from Hangzhou now appears difficult to match, even with more events still to come.
One of the titles India failed to retain came in the men's 50m 3-position team event, where the team settled for silver. Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, who jointly holds the qualifying Games record of 591, managed 589 this time. Niraj Kumar and Rudrankksh Patil shot 588 and 585 respectively, leaving the Indian trio with a combined 1762, four points behind China.
The individual event brought further frustration for India. Tomar, who had won silver in the previous edition and also holds the Asian record, could not find his best rhythm. He struggled across all three positions and was repeatedly undone by shots that drifted into the nines. After the first two rounds, his 102.9 in kneeling and 102.4 in prone left him 3.2 points behind China's Liu Yukun, who went on to win gold with a new Games record. Zhang Changhong of China took silver, while Tomar finished fifth and Niraj eighth.
Against that backdrop, Suruchi and Kamaljeet's victory stood out not only as India's first shooting gold of the competition but also as a statement of recovery. It was a performance that arrived at the right moment, restored confidence and showed that even after setbacks in individual events, India still had the ability to produce a championship finish when it mattered most.