SHYMKENT (Kazakhstan): Olympian Anantjeet Singh Naruka secured India’s first senior gold medal at the Asian Shooting Championships 2025, winning the top prize in the men’s skeet event in Shymkent, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday.
Naruka scored 57 out of a possible 60 points in a competitive final clash against Kuwait’s Mansour Al-Rashidi, a former Asian Games champion, who managed 56. The bronze medal went to Qatar’s Ali Ahmed Al-Ishaq, who shot 43, as per Olympics.com.
This is also Naruka’s first-ever individual gold at Asian Championships, as in the last edition held at Kuwait, he had to stay content with a silver. Interestingly, back then, Naruka had missed out on gold with a similar scoreline of 57-56 to Chinese Taipei’s Lee Meng-yuan.
India’s🇮🇳 Anantjeet Singh Naruka wins Gold🥇in Men’s Skeet event at #AsianShootingChampionships in Kazakhstan. pic.twitter.com/ESV9M07i3h
— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) August 20, 2025
Naruka was India’s only qualifier to the individual final after finishing second in the preliminary round with a score of 119. India’s Angad Vir Singh Bajwa, another Olympian and two-time Asian champion in skeet, registered an eighth-place finish, but was shooting for ranking points only (RPO).
Bhavtegh Singh Gill finished at 28th, with Abhay Singh Sekhon attaining 31st spot in the qualifiers. Naruka, Gill and Sekhon combined secured a sixth-place finish in the men’s team event.
Naruka’s gold concluded the day for Indian shooters, which saw a bronze medal win for Saurabh Chaudhary and Suruchi Singh in the 10m air pistol mixed team event.
Surichi and Saurabh defeated Chinese Taipei’s Liu Heng-Yu and Hsieh Hsiang-Chen 17-9 in the medal clash, and China secured the gold medal. The Indian duo missed the gold medal match by just two points, and it marked their second medal at the ongoing championships.
Saurabh, who is also an Olympian, teamed up with Aditya Malra and Anmol Jain to secure the silver medal in the men’s 10 m air pistol team event.
Suruchi was also a part of the bronze-winning Indian women’s 10 m air pistol team alongside Olympic medalist Manu Bhaker and Palak Gulia
Also, the women’s skeet team comprising of Maheshwari Chauhan, Ganemat Sekhon and Raiza Dhillon secured a bronze medal as they finished behind China and Kazakhstan in their category. The Indian trio shot 329 points, while China managed 342, and Kazakhstan got 339 points.
Maheshwari Chauhan also made it to the final of women’s singles’ skeet event, finishing fifth in the qualifiers, but missed out on the medal by finishing fourth.
So far at the championships, India has won six medals, a gold, a silver and four bronze in senior events. Only China is ahead of India. The Indian contingent, amongst seniors, comprises of 35 members competing for medals across 15 events. A total of 129 junior shooters are also representing the Indian tricolour at the event. (ANI)
