India's Anant Jeet Singh Naruka and Parinaaz Dhaliwal won the bronze medal in the mixed skeet team event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026 on Thursday.
The medal is India's first-ever Asian Games medal in the mixed skeet team category. The Indian pair finished with 44 hits and were eliminated after the sixth series. China and South Korea advanced to the final series to battle for gold, with China eventually edging South Korea by 52-51 to win Gold.
India had a slow start in the four-team final, registering seven hits in the opening series, compared to eight each by China and South Korea. Naruka and Dhaliwal gradually recovered and remained in contention for a medal.
India had 29 hits after 32 shots, just one behind China and South Korea, who were tied at 30. The fourth team in the final, Qatar, were already out. China and South Korea doubled their lead after 40 shots, with both sides on 38 hits while India were on 36.
Naruka and Dhaliwal responded in the next series to get to 44 hits. China jumped to 45, while South Korea also jumped to 44. India and South Korea were tied, and the Korean pair advanced to the gold-medal round on a better qualification score.
Eventually, China took the gold medal after beating South Korea 52-51.
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The bronze was the second medal of the Games for both Naruka and Dhaliwal. Naruka had earlier won bronze in the men's skeet team event alongside Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Bhavtegh Singh Gill. On the other hand, Dhaliwal had also claimed bronze in the women's skeet team event with Raiza Dhillon and Maheshwari Chauhan on Wednesday.
Naruka had also previously won the individual skeet silver at the Hangzhou Asian Games. The mixed skeet bronze adds another medal to India's strong shooting campaign at the Aichi-Nagoya Games.
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