Asian Games: Suruchi, Kamaljeet bag a redemption gold, men’s 3P take team silver

New Delhi: The last two seasons have been nothing less than spectacular for Suruchi Singh. Since the National Championships in December 2024 at the Karni Singh Ranges here, her pistol hasn’t stopped firing, until this week at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya.

She has emerged as the biggest talent in Indian shooting in recent times, sweeping up gold medals at the ISSF World Cups, including back-to-back air pistol titles at the prestigious Munich World Cup beating world class shooters from China, South Korea, among others.

On Wednesday, however, Suruchi, as part of India’s star-studded 10m women’s air pistol team that also included Manu Bhaker and Esha Singh, shot 568 points in qualification and finished 15th.

She hasn’t shot this low in two years and it not only put her out of the individual final but dealt a big blow to her confidence. Just 20-years old and having gone to the Asian Games with huge expectations, such a performance can be devastating. “When my match ended, I felt as if everything was over for me,” Suruchi said.

That was the frightening space she was in, with the mixed team event coming up in two days. To make matters worse, the men and women pistol teams drew a blank in individual and team events, quite a turnaround from the 2023 Asian Games when India bagged four medals, including two gold in the pistol events. Only Manu Bhaker made it to the final, finishing fifth. There was one last chance of redemption and that was the mixed pistol team discipline. The onus was on Suruchi and Kamaljeet, who replaced Kedarling Balakrishna Uchaganve, to make amends.

At the Aichi Prefecture General Shooting Gallery on Friday, they were on target to bag the first gold medal from shooting, and that too with a Games record score of 587.

Suruchi entered the zone she is known for, shooting a fantastic series of 99, 97 and 100 while covering up for her inexperienced teammate Kamaljeet, who shot 97, 98, 96.

They topped the 21-team qualification ahead of Iran (584), South Korea (582) and Indonesia (580). Suruchi, once she got going, was unstoppable in the final. Together they logged 484.6 points to win gold, once again breaking the Asian record. They led from start to finish with Suruchi again leading in the scoring. Korea (Choo Gaeun and Hong Suhyeon) took silver with 478 points and Iran (Haniyeh Rostamiyan and Vahid Golkhandan) the bronze.

“My score in individual competition was so bad that I didn’t know what had happened-- didn’t expect at all. I shot 20 less than my average scores. I don’t even remember when I shot so badly in my competitive career. It was tough,” said Suruchi, relieved after the gold medal. “But it was good guidance from our coach Samaresh (Jung) sir that we were able to comeback. He asked us to just take the match out of our memory and hit the reset button,” she said.

For Kamaljeet, it was worse because he made it to the squad after beating some of the top shooters in domestic trials.

“I was so sad and I felt that I would have to leave my first Asian Games without a medal,” he said.

It was then he got the news that since he finished 9th in the individual events -- the best among three pistol shooters, he would get to compete in the mixed team event. “Sir ( Samaresh) told me there was a change in the 10m mixed team event and that I would play in place of Kedarling. It was like a second life for me and I thanked God. I had one more chance to bag the elusive medal,” said Kamaljeet, who has lost almost a year because of injury.

“It has been a difficult phase. Financially I don’t come from a good background and my parents have supported me throughout.”

For Suruchi, it attested to her potential. Suruchi hails from Jhajjar, Haryana and has trained in the same academy where Manu Bhaker started her shooting career. Kamaljeet comes from nearby Rewari, and they had an instant connection. “She was so good. I kept telling myself that I need to keep supporting her,” he said.

3P team silver

After the dull days, the entire shooting contingent was elated with the gold medal.

India also took silver medal in men’s 50m rifle 3-position team event -- Aishwary Pratap Singh, Rudrankksh Patil and Niraj Kumar. Though Aishwary and Niraj qualified for the final, they failed to win an individual medal. It was another event where India had high hopes with world championships silver medallist Aishwary in the fray. Niraj too has been performing well in international meets.

India totalled 1762 points and finished four points behind China 1766 points. Aishwary shot 589, Niraj 588 and Rudrankksh, who is new to the event, scored 585. But in the eight-shooter final, Aishwary struggled with his rhythm and finished fifth while Niraj bowed out in eighth place.