Curtains were drawn on the 16th Asian Shooting Championship (All events) in Shymkent, Kazakhstan, and after 12 exhilarating competition days, the Indian team registered a historic best-ever showing, finishing with an unprecedented 50 golds to top the tally- also a first in the history of the premier continental championship.
Particularly pleasing was the senior team’s performance in the 15 Olympic events across the rifle, pistol, and shotgun disciplines, where Indian shooters won six gold, two silver, and three bronze medals, finishing behind global powerhouse China, which won eight gold medals, with hosts Kazakhstan picking up the other.
“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. Particularly pleasing is the performance of the juniors, which tells you that Indian shooting has just begun and greater things are sure to come in the near future,” said a pleased Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo, President, National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), on the performance.
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 hosts were second with 70 medals and 21 gold, while China was third overall with 15 gold and 37 medals.
The highlight of the senior’s performance being two-time Olympian Elavenil Valarivan’s second Asian crown (she won a double gold partnering Arjun Babuta in the mixed team event) in women’s air rifle with an Asian record score, Neeru Dhanda’s first ever Asian championship gold for India in women’s trap, Sift Kaur Samra’s first Asian title in women’s 50 rifle 3-position (3P) and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar’s defense of his men’s 3P title.
Indian junior shooters also demonstrated the depth of the country's talent in the sport by completely dominating all the Olympic events, winning 10 gold, four silver, and three bronze medals each.The other gold medals came in the youth competitions and team events, as well as in non-Olympic events. Former world champion Ankur Mittal, for example, won the men’s Double Trap gold with a world record score of 107, while Rio Olympian Gurpreet Singh struck gold in the men’s 25m Standard Pistol event.