Shymkent (Kazakhstan): Flags waved. Triggers clicked. Records fell. A nation rose. The 2025 Asian Shooting Championships in Shymkent brought India its proudest shooting moment on foreign soil. A perfect script unfolded. Final medal count: 99. Gold: 50.
Ankur Mittal stood tall. His shots flew clean. His eyes stayed locked. A world record took shape. Men’s double trap gold hung around his neck. Final score: 107 hits. Kazakhstan’s Artyom Chikulayev followed with 98. Kuwait’s Ahmad Alaffasi finished third with 96. The crowd looked on. History got written.
Ankur stepped off the podium. He joined Bhanu Pratap Singh and Harshvardhan Kaviya. Their team collected bronze. Another podium. More joy.
Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu took aim. His performance stood out in 25m centre fire pistol. A total of 583 earned him gold. Korea’s Lee Jaekyoon came in at 580. Iran’s Javad Foroughi followed with 579. Olympian Gurpreet Singh also scored 579. No medal, but inches away.
Rajkanwar, Gurpreet and Ankur Goel then teamed up. Their combined score read 1,733. Vietnam followed with 1,720. Iran finished at 1,700. Team gold secured.
Manini Kaushik lined up for the 50m rifle prone. Calm. Focused. Six steady series. Final score: 617.8. Bronze for India. South Korea’s Im Hana and Lee Eunseo topped the table with identical 620.2 scores. Countback placed Im Hana first.
Sift Kaur Samra posted 617.9. Ahead of Kaushik. Also ahead of Yelin Choi (620.1). But Samra and Choi were not eligible. They shot for ranking points only. Kaushik stood on the podium. Alongside Surabhi Bhardwaj and Vidarsa Vinod. A team silver added to India’s total.
In the women’s double trap, the podium turned saffron, white and green. Anushka Singh Bhati scored 93. Gold. Rajkuwar Pranil Ingle followed with 89. Silver. Yeshaya Hafiz Contractor closed with 87. Bronze. All smiles. No empty steps on the podium.
Medal Chart
10m Air Pistol
- Silver (Men’s Team): Anmol Jain, Saurabh Chaudhary, Aditya Malra
- Bronze (Mixed): Saurabh Chaudhary, Suruchi Singh
- Bronze (Women’s Individual): Manu Bhaker
- Bronze (Women’s Team): Manu Bhaker, Suruchi Singh, Palak Gulia
25m Pistol
- Bronze (Women’s Team): Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh, Simranpreet Kaur Brar
25m Centre Fire Pistol
- Gold (Men’s Individual): Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu
- Gold (Men’s Team): Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu, Gurpreet Singh, Ankur Goel
25m Rapid Fire Pistol
- Silver (Men’s Individual): Anish Bhanwala
- Silver (Men’s Team): Anish Bhanwala, Neeraj Kumar, Adarsh Singh
25m Standard Pistol
- Gold (Men’s Individual): Gurpreet Singh
- Gold (Men’s Team): Gurpreet Singh, Amanpreet Singh, Harsh Gupta
- Silver (Men’s Individual): Amanpreet Singh
50m Pistol
- Silver (Men’s Team): Yogesh Kumar, Amanpreet Singh, Ravinder Singh
10m Air Rifle
- Gold (Men’s Team): Rudrankksh Patil, Arjun Babuta, Kiran Jadhav
- Gold (Women’s Individual): Elavenil Valarivan
- Bronze (Women’s Team): Elavenil Valarivan, Mehuli Ghosh, Ananya Naidu
- Gold (Mixed): Elavenil Valarivan, Arjun Babuta
50m Rifle Prone
- Bronze (Women’s Individual): Manini Kaushik
- Silver (Women’s Team): Manini Kaushik, Surabhi Bharadwaj Rapole, Vidarsa Kochalumkal Vinod
50m Rifle 3 Positions
- Gold (Women’s Team): Sift Kaur Samra, Ashi Chouksey, Anjum Moudgil
- Gold (Women’s Individual): Sift Kaur Samra
- Gold (Men’s Individual): Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar
- Silver (Men’s Team): Aishwary Tomar, Chain Singh, Akhil Sheoran
Trap
- Gold (Women’s Individual): Neeru Dhanda
- Gold (Women’s Team): Neeru Dhanda, Aashima Ahlawat, Preeti Rajak
- Silver (Men’s Individual): Bhowneesh Mendiratta
- Bronze (Women’s Individual): Aashima Ahlawat
Double Trap
- Gold (Men’s Individual): Ankur Mittal
- Bronze (Men’s Team): Ankur Mittal, Bhanu Pratap Singh, Harshvardhan Kaviya
- Gold (Women’s Individual): Anushka Singh Bhati
- Silver (Women’s Individual): Rajkuwar Pranil Ingle
- Bronze (Women’s Individual): Yeshaya Hafiz Contractor
- Gold (Women’s Team): Bhati, Ingle, Contractor
Skeet
- Gold (Men’s Individual): Anantjeet Singh Naruka
- Bronze (Mixed): Ganemat Sekhon, Abhay Singh Sekhon
- Bronze (Women’s Team): Maheshwari Chauhan, Ganemat Sekhon, Raiza Dhillon
Junior And Youth Medal Haul
10m Air Pistol
- Gold (Men’s Individual): Kapil Bainsla
- Gold (Women’s Individual): Rashmika Sahgal
- Gold (Women’s Team): Sahgal, Vanshika Chaudhary, Mohini Singh
- Gold (Mixed): Vanshika Chaudhary, Jonathan Gavin Antony
- Silver (Men’s Team): Bainsla, Antony, Vijay Tomar
- Bronze (Men’s Individual): Jonathan Gavin Antony
Youth 10m Air Pistol
- Gold (Women’s Individual): Kanak Budhwar
- Gold (Women’s Team): Budhwar, Agam Grewal, Gamberya Gowda
- Gold (Men’s Individual): Girish Gupta
- Gold (Men’s Team): Gupta, Dev Pratap, Antony
- Gold (Mixed): Ganesh Gupta, Gamberya Gowda
- Silver (Women’s Individual): Agam Grewal
10m Air Rifle
- Gold (Men’s Individual): Abhinav Shaw
- Gold (Men’s Team): Shaw, Naraen Pranav, Himanshu
- Gold (Women’s Team): Shambhavi Kshirsagar, Hrudya Sri Kondur, Isha Anil Taksale
Skeet
- Gold (Women’s Individual): Mansi Raghuwanshi
- Gold (Men’s Team): Harmehar Singh Lally, Jyotiraditya Singh Sisodia, Atul Singh Rajawat
- Silver (Women’s Individual): Yashasvi Rathore
- Silver (Men’s Individual): Harmehar Singh Lally
- Bronze (Men’s Individual): Jyotiraditya Singh Sisodia
25m Pistol
- Gold (Women’s Individual): Payal Khatri
- Gold (Men’s Individual): Suraj Sharma
- Silver (Women’s Individual): Naamya Kapoor
- Silver (Women’s Team): Tejaswini, Khatri, Riya Shirish Thatte
- Silver (Men’s Individual): Abhinav Choudhary
- Bronze (Men’s Individual): Mukesh Nelavalli
- Bronze (Men’s Team): Nelavalli, Choudhary, Sharma
- Bronze (Women’s Individual): Tejaswini
25m Rapid Fire Pistol
- Gold (Men’s Team): Sameer Gulia, Suraj Sharma, Abhinav Choudhary
- Bronze (Men’s Individual): Sameer Gulia
25m Standard Pistol
- Gold (Men’s Team): Mukesh Nelavalli, Suraj Sharma, Tanishq Naidu
- Silver (Men’s Individual): Suraj Sharma
- Bronze (Men’s Individual): Tanishq Naidu
50m 3 Positions
- Gold (Women’s Individual): Anushka Thokur
- Gold (Women’s Team): Thokur, Prachi Gaikwad, Mahit Sandhu
Trap
- Gold (Women’s Individual): Sabeera Haris
- Gold (Men’s Team): Aryavansh Tyagi, Arjun, Udhav Singh Rathore
- Gold (Women’s Team): Haris, Addya Katyal, Bhavya Tripathi
- Silver (Men’s Team)