Anantjeet-Parinaaz clinch historic skeet mixed-team bronze for India

NAGOYA: Anantjeet Singh Naruka and Parinaaz Dhaliwal gave Indian skeet another reason to celebrate on Thursday, shooting their way to a historic bronze India's first-ever Asian Games medal in the mixed team event after overcoming a nerve-wracking final made even trickier by gusty winds.

The bronze completed a remarkable three-medal burst for Indian skeet in just two days, an unprecedented haul for a discipline that has long lived in the shadow of trap and double trap.

It also brought some much-needed cheer to the shooting contingent on a day when the pistol campaign stumbled again, with the men's 10m air pistol team failing to put a single shooter into the final and returning empty-handed.

For Anantjeet and Parinaaz, there was more to the medal than its colour. Anantjeet, Bhavtegh Singh Gill and Mairaj Ahmed Khan had taken the men's team bronze on Wednesday before Parinaaz, Raiza Dhillon and Maheshwari Chauhan added the women's team bronze later that day.

Twenty-four hours on, Anantjeet and Parinaaz were back at the range, this time combining to ensure that all three skeet events produced medals for India.

The duo had to fight hard for this one.

They entered the four-team final in fourth place after shooting 138 in qualification, with Anantjeet hitting 70 out of 75 and Parinaaz 68. Qatar topped the qualification with 145, followed by South Korea on 143 and China on 140.

But all of that was wiped away once the final began. The four teams started from scratch, with the medals to be decided through a series of elimination rounds in which every missed target carried greater weight.

Qatar, despite topping qualification, were the first to fall after Rashed Saleh and Reema Ghanem struggled in their opening 12 shots each. Their early exit guaranteed India at least a bronze and opened the door to a possible medal upgrade.

India had begun solidly, hitting 21 of 24 targets. China led with 23, while South Korea were on 22.

The pressure intensified in the next round as intermittent gusts swept across the range and made an already unforgiving contest even harder. India responded well, missing just once through Naruka to hit 23 of 24 and take their aggregate to 44.

It was enough to secure bronze, but not enough to keep them in the fight for gold.

China and South Korea advanced to the final round, with China eventually taking gold on 52 and Korea silver on 51. India finished on 44, but their bronze completed a sweep of the three skeet team events at these Games.

For Parinaaz, 24, the medal was her second bronze of her Asian Games campaign, following the women's team medal on Wednesday. It capped a memorable Games for the Patiala shooter, who had earlier sacrificed the prospect of going abroad for higher studies to concentrate on skeet shooting.

Parinaaz, who had missed the women's team medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, credited the pair's aggressive approach on Thursday and constant encouragement from her partner for getting them through the pressure.

"We were aggressive. We just kept telling each other to keep fighting. That's what mixed team is about," she said.

For Anantjeet, 28, the bronze carried an even deeper significance. The Jaipur shooter has already won a World Cup Final bronze in Delhi and came within one place of an Olympic medal when he and Maheshwari Chauhan finished fourth in the mixed team event at Paris 2024.

Yet Thursday's bronze, he said, ranked above those achievements.

"This one ranks highest. In the Olympics you are coming fourth, but if you're not standing on the podium it does not matter. We fought well and got the bronze today," he said.