Asian Games 2026: Himanshu wins silver, Rudrankksh bronze in shooting
Himanshu Dhillon and Rudrankksh Patil won silver and bronze in the men's 10m air rifle individual event at the Asian Games 2026.
India's strong show in shooting at the Asian Games 2026 continued as the country won two medals in the men's 10m air rifle individual event. Himanshu Dhillon won the silver medal, while Rudrankksh Patil claimed bronze.
In the final, Himanshu finished second with 252.4 points. Rudrankksh finished third with 230.9 points. China's Sheng Lihao won gold with 254.2 points, said to be a record score for the event at the Asian Games.
In the final, Rudrankksh held the lead for a long time and remained in contention for gold, but China's Sheng Lihao made a strong comeback in the later rounds. Rudrankksh made a brilliant start, scoring 52.8 in the first series to take the lead. He strengthened his lead further with 53.2 in the second series, going ahead by 1.1 points. Himanshu was also in contention for a medal at that stage but later slipped to second place.
After 12 shots, Rudrankksh was leading with 127.4 points, followed by Himanshu on 126.6 and Sheng on 126.3. The contest remained extremely close in the middle rounds too. After 16 shots, Sheng moved ahead with 168.8 points, while Rudrankksh and Himanshu were tied on 168.6. Himanshu scored 10.9 to cut the gap with Rudrankksh to just 0.1 points, but a 9.8 on the very next shot pushed him to third place. He then recovered with a 10.6 to hold on to his spot in the medal race.
The final stage brought a dramatic turn for the Indian pair. Rudrankksh was eliminated from contention after 22 shots. He scored 230.9 points, just 0.1 points behind Himanshu's 231.0. A 9.7 on his last shot cost him dearly, and he had to settle for bronze.
Himanshu then took on Sheng for the gold. Both shooters scored 10.6 on their final shots, but Sheng won gold with 233.0 points, while Himanshu took silver with 231.0 points. With this result, India won both silver and bronze in the men's 10m air rifle individual event, with both Himanshu and Rudrankksh winning medals.
Earlier, Rudrankksh and Himanshu had won silver in the men's 10m air rifle team event. Parth Makwana was also part of the Indian team at the time. China won gold and South Korea won bronze in that event. With this, both Rudrankksh and Himanshu now have two medals each at the 2026 Asian Games.
India currently stands tenth in the Asian Games medal table with six medals. China remains at the top, having won 14 gold, six silver and two bronze medals for a total of 23 medals. Japan is second with 21 medals in total.
