India’s shooting team has been one of the more productive units of the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya, yet a full week into competition, the discipline has produced silver and bronze in abundance but still no gold.
## A Strong Medal Haul, Missing Its Top Colour
India’s rifle shooters alone have delivered four medals so far: Elavenil Valarivan’s individual and team silvers in the women’s 10m air rifle, plus Himanshu Dhillon’s individual silver and Rudrankksh Patil’s bronze in the men’s event, alongside a men’s team silver. Add the women’s skeet team’s bronze, and the tally grows further, yet gold has remained just out of reach.
## Two Painful Near-Misses
Twice, India has come agonisingly close to gold-medal contention only to fall short of the podium entirely. The women’s 10m air pistol team finished fourth, missing bronze to Vietnam by two inner-10 shots, while Elavenil Valarivan and Parth Mane finished fourth in the mixed 10m air rifle team final behind a dominant, world-record-setting Chinese pair. Our full breakdown of that mixed team result explains exactly where the final slipped away.
## A Contrast With Hangzhou 2023
At the previous Games in Hangzhou, Indian shooters won seven gold medals among a 22-medal haul, making the current gold drought in Nagoya a notable shift from that high-water mark. Several of Hangzhou’s individual champions, including Sift Kaur Samra and Samrat Rana, were not selected for the Aichi-Nagoya squad, thinning India’s gold-medal experience in this cycle.
## What Needs to Change
Manu Bhaker’s fifth-place finish in the individual 10m air pistol final, covered in our dedicated update on her campaign, adds to a pattern of strong qualification form not converting into medal-round composure, a recurring theme across India’s shooting results in Nagoya.
## Time Still Remains
With shooting events continuing through October 1, including Bhaker’s upcoming 25m pistol event and several more finals across rifle, pistol and shotgun disciplines, India still has real opportunities to end its gold drought before the discipline wraps up in Nagoya.