Asian Games 2026: Indian women's 50m rifle 3P team bag silver; Tilottama fourth

The Indian trio of Tilottama Sen, Vidarsa Vinod and Ashi Chouksey won the silver medal in women's 50m rifle 3 positions team event at the Asian Games on Saturday, with the young Tilottama finishing fourth in the individual final.

The Indian team aggregated 1763 to finish second on the podium. China claimed the gold medal with a games record 1773, while Kazakhstan settled for the bronze with 1754 following a gruelling contest.

In the individual final, Tilottama was crestfallen after a 9.4 at a crucial stage of the contest put paid to her hopes of finishing on the podium one more time, moments after she edged compatriot Vidarsa Vinod with a 10-4. Vidarsa ended in fifth place with 327.4.

Tilottama, who was leading after the first 25 shots in the final and was placed third after 30 shots, ended the competition with 337.3.

China's Jiayu Han won the gold medal with an Asian Championship record of 359.0 and her compatriot Liyuan Zhang (358.8) claimed the silver. South Korea's Jieun Kim (348.4) the bagged bronze medal.

After the kneeling position in the final, Tillotama was placed fifth with a score of 102.4. while Vidarsa was in sixth position with a total of 102.1.

The two Indians were struggling at the bottom half at the end of the prone series, but made a fine comeback in the standing series of the final.

However, both Tilottama and Vidarsa could not go all the way and had to be content with a fourth and fifth place-finish respectively.

Earlier in the qualification, Ashi and Tilottama placed themselves in the top three with scores of 395-25x and 395-23x ahead of standing, respectively.

However, world number 15 Vidarsa staged a fine recovery to finish the qualification in sixth place with a total of 588.

Tilottama, ranked 107 in the world and who became the youngest Indian shooter to secure an Olympic quota place at 15 years old during the 2023 Asian Shooting Championship, entered the eight-women final in third place after shooting 590 across the three stages of kneeling, prone and standing.

World number 18 Ashi, who was doing well at one stage of the qualification, however ended with 585 to narrowly miss out on a place in the final.

Tilottama led the Indian challenge in the individual qualification before being joined by Vidarsa.

In the qualification, Ashi and Tilottama had identical scores of 395 after the kneeling and prone stages, with Ashi registering 25 inner 10s and Tilottama 23.

Tilottama, however, produced a stronger standing series to finish with 590 and move into the top three.

Vidarsa's total score was enough to earn her a place in the final despite not being among the leading shooters for much of the qualification.

Both Tilottama and Vidarsa end their games campaign with two medals each.

The 50m rifle 3 positions event requires shooters to compete in kneeling, prone and standing positions, with the qualification scores determining the eight finalists. The aggregate scores of the three shooters are taken to decide the team medal

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