NEW DELHI: Olympian and world championship silver medalist Anish Bhanwala clinched bronze in the men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol (RFP), his third Asian Championship medal, as Kazakhstan dominated day eight of the Asian Rifle/Pistol Championship,New Delhi 2026, picking up four gold medals here at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range on Wednesday.
Adriyan Karmakar in the 50m rifle prone junior men’s event and the junior men’s 25m RFP team also won gold on the day, taking India’s table-topping medal tally to 41 gold, 19 silver and 15 bronze medals, with two more days of competitions left, according to a release.
Anish Bhanwala and Adarsh Singh took the seventh and eighth qualifying spots with scores of 574 and 573 respectively,ensuring two Indians in the RFP final. Former champion Nikita Chiryukin of Kazakhstan topped the qualifiers with a 582 and led a trio of his mates into the decider.
Japanese Dai Yoshioka, a two-time Olympian and a world cup gold medalist and Ha Minh Thanh, a double Asian Games medalist also went through along with Ha’s teammate Vu Tien Nam.
In the final consisting of eight series of five rapid-fire shots, Yoshioka, Anish and Chiryukin were fastest off the blocks as Vu and Kazakh Artemiy Kabakov, became the first two to be eliminated after the third series.
As long-time team mate Adarsh bowed out after the fourth series with 11 hits to his name, Anish found himself in joint lead with Yoshioka and Nikita after the sixth series with 21 hits.
However, he got two hits in the seventh as the Japanese struck five and Chiryukin four, settling for bronze, the same result he had three years ago at the Changwon Asian Championships.
Yoshioka went on to close with another perfect five to upgrade his Changwon performance by one, finishing on a world and Asian record score of 38. Chiryukin won silver with 35 hits, while Anish ended on 23 hits.