India’s Skeet Shooting Duo Makes History: First-Ever Mixed Team Bronze at Asian Games 2026

Some medals are about performance. This one is about legacy. On the shooting range in Nagoya, India’s Anantjeet Singh Naruka and Parinaaz Dhaliwal etched their names into the record books by winning the country’s first-ever bronze medal in the mixed team skeet event at the Asian Games 2026 — a category India had never medaled in before.

And they did it just a day after both shooters had already picked up bronze in their individual team events. Back-to-back history, one weekend.

How the Final Played Out?

Naruka and Dhaliwal entered the final after squeezing into fourth place in qualification with a combined score of 138 — good enough to grab the last available spot, even as Qatar topped the round with 145.

In the final itself, the Indian pair built steadily across all six series, posting scores of 7, 14, 21, 29, 36, and finishing at 44. China ran away with gold on 52 points, while South Korea edged silver with 51 after a tense final series. India and South Korea were actually tied at 44 at one stage — India claimed bronze purely on a stronger qualification ranking.

India Final Standings: Mixed Team Skeet, Asian Games 2026

The Story Behind the Shooters

Naruka, 28, is a Jaipur native who grew up around the sport — his father, Dalpat Singh Naruka, was himself an Asian Games-level skeet shooter. Trained under his father and Italian coach Riccardo Filippelli, Naruka already carries a silver and bronze from the 2023 Hangzhou Games, Paris Olympics 2024 experience, and a gold from the 2025 Asian Shotgun Championship.

Dhaliwal, 24, from Patiala, actually started out in trap shooting before switching to skeet in 2015. Her international medal breakthrough came at the 2022 ISSF Junior World Cup, followed by ISSF World Cup silver in New Delhi.

Why This Medal Matters?

Shooting has quietly become India’s most reliable medal engine at these Games — this bronze pushed the discipline’s tally to eight medals overall (four silver, four bronze), even as the elusive shooting gold remains out of reach so far. For a sport built on precision under pressure, a first-ever medal in a brand-new event category is exactly the kind of milestone that builds depth for future editions, much like how multi-sport events such as the Asian Games have historically served as a launchpad for rising Asian athletes across disciplines.

For the full picture of how India is performing across every sport in Nagoya, check out TechnoSports’ coverage of India’s medal surge at the Asian Games 2026.

FAQs