Aichi-Nagoya, 21 September (H.S.): Indian shooters Himanshu Dhillon and Rudrankksh Patil won the silver and bronze medals, respectively, in the men’s 10m air rifle individual event at the 2026 Asian Games on Monday. China’s Sheng Lihao won the gold medal after a closely contested final.

Rudrankksh made an impressive start to the final.

He scored 52.8 points in the first series to take the early lead and followed it with 53.2 points in the second series, extending his advantage to 1.1 points. Himanshu also remained firmly in medal contention and briefly moved into second place.

After 12 shots, Rudrankksh led with 127.4 points, while Himanshu and Sheng Lihao occupied second and third places with 126.6 and 126.3 points, respectively.

The contest remained extremely close through the middle stages.

After 16 shots, Sheng moved into the lead with 168.8 points, while Rudrankksh and Himanshu were level on 168.6 points. Himanshu then produced an excellent 10.9 shot to reduce the gap to Rudrankksh to just 0.1 points, but a 9.8 on his next shot dropped him to third place. He responded with a 10.6 to remain firmly in the medal race.

After 20 shots, Sheng extended his lead to one point. Rudrankksh stood second with 210.6 points, while Himanshu was third with 210.0 points.

The contest then became even more dramatic. After 22 shots, Rudrankksh was eliminated with 230.9 points, while Himanshu remained just 0.1 points ahead on 231.0. Rudrankksh’s earlier 9.7 shot proved costly and he had to settle for the bronze medal.

The gold-medal battle then came down to Himanshu and Sheng.

Both shooters scored 10.6 with their final shots, but Sheng secured the gold with a total of 233.0 points. Himanshu finished with 231.0 points to win the silver medal.

With this result, India achieved a one-two finish in the men’s 10m air rifle individual event, winning both the silver and bronze medals.

Earlier, the Indian team of Rudrankksh Patil, Parth Mane and Himanshu Dhillon had also won the silver medal in the men’s 10m air rifle team event. India scored 1,890.1 points, while China won gold with 1,899.0 points and South Korea claimed bronze with 1,841.4 points.

In soft tennis, Adhya Tiwari and Jai Meena began their mixed doubles Group B campaign with a 5-0 victory over Cambodia’s Viva Chao and Chanroseka Khun. They also defeated Mongolia’s Bud Nyamdorj and Enkhkhuslen Ganbaatar but lost to South Korea’s Kim Yeon-hwa and Jakyu Park. Despite the defeat, the Indian pair finished second in the group and advanced to the Round of 16.

In swimming, Srihari Nataraj qualified for the final of the men’s 50m backstroke, while Rishabh Das was named as a reserve. Mani Akash and Gitesh Shah failed to qualify for the final of the men’s 50m freestyle. Dhanush Suresh also failed to reach the final of the men’s 100m breaststroke.

In wushu, Nyeman Wangsu finished 15th in the women’s Changquan final. In table tennis, the Indian women’s team defeated Pakistan 3-0 in their Group F encounter.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar