New Delhi, Feb 11 (NationPress) Olympian and world championship silver medalist Anish Bhanwala captured bronze in the men's 25m rapid-fire pistol (RFP), marking his third medal at the Asian Championship. On day eight of the Asian Rifle/Pistol Championship held in New Delhi 2026, Kazakhstan excelled by clinching four gold medals at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range on Wednesday.

Adriyan Karmakar triumphed in the 50m rifle prone junior men’s event, alongside the junior men's 25m RFP team, contributing to India's impressive medal tally of 41 gold, 19 silver, and 15 bronze medals, with two more competition days remaining.

Anish Bhanwala and Adarsh Singh secured the seventh and eighth qualifying positions with scores of 574 and 573, respectively, ensuring two Indian representatives in the RFP final. The former champion Nikita Chiryukin from Kazakhstan led the qualifiers with a score of 582, bringing along two compatriots into the final.

Two-time Olympian and world cup gold medalist Dai Yoshioka from Japan, and double Asian Games medalist Ha Minh Thanh, along with Ha’s teammate Vu Tien Nam, also advanced to the finals.

In the final round, which consisted of eight series featuring five rapid-fire shots, Yoshioka, Anish, and Chiryukin quickly took the lead. However, Vu and Kazakh Artemiy Kabakov were the first to exit after the third series.

Adarsh exited after the fourth series with 11 hits, while Anish matched Yoshioka and Nikita at the top with 21 hits following the sixth series.

Unfortunately, Anish scored only two hits in the seventh as Yoshioka hit five and Chiryukin four, settling for bronze—repeating his performance from three years ago at the Changwon Asian Championships. Yoshioka ultimately finished with a world and Asian record score of 31, Chiryukin secured silver with 28 hits, while Anish concluded with 23 hits.

Earlier, the talented Kazakh shooter Islam Satpayev, who earned a bronze at the Paris Olympics in a mixed team event, shone brightly by securing two golds in the popular 50m rifle prone men’s competitions. He achieved victory in the individual event with a score of 622.5, also winning team gold alongside teammates Nikita Shakhtorin (individual silver with 622.5) and Konstantin Malinovsky (615.0).

India achieved a bronze through Babu Singh Panwar (621.3) in the individual men's event and a silver in the team event, as Babu teamed up with Samarvir Singh (618.2) and Sartaj Singh Tiwana (614.4).

In the junior men’s rifle prone, India’s Adriyan Karmakar attained gold with a score of 621.7 over 60 shots. Kazakh shooters Oleg Noskov (620.6) and Tamerlan Kabulov (617.3) took silver and bronze, respectively. Kazakhstan also won team gold in this event with a tally of 1848.7, surpassing India’s 1847.6.

In the final event of the day, the junior men’s 25m RFP, Indonesia’s Muhamad Fawwaz Aditia Farrel secured gold, achieving a score of 29 in the final, which also set a world and Asian junior record. India’s Suraj Sharma took silver with 23 hits, while Mukesh Nelavalli earned bronze with 19.

Suraj (582) and Mukesh (572) won gold in the team competition, partnering with Sahil Choudhary (575) in the qualification round to achieve a collective total of 1729. Team Kazakhstan claimed silver with a score of 1613.