New Delhi: India topped the medal table at the 2026 ISSF Junior World Championships in Sur, Germany, and ended its run with a bang with 24 medals, including 7 gold, 8 silver and 9 bronze, underlining its growing dominance in world shooting.The Indian team is ahead of the Individual Athletes Neutral (AIN), which has won 14 medals, including 6 golds, while traditional powerhouse Italy is third with 10 medals and 6 golds.This outstanding performance marks another milestone for Indian shooting, with the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) celebrating the country’s success in rifle and pistol events, individual, mixed and team events.
Young Stars Cross Rifles and Pistols
The competition started off well for India with Sejal Kamble claiming gold in the women’s 10m air pistol event while Himanshi bagged the bronze. Sejal then won the team gold medal along with Vanshika Choudhary and Navya Bishnoi to give India an early lead in the tournament.The medals kept coming with Sameer claiming gold in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event, Rohit Kanyan finishing on the podium in the men’s 50m rifle event and Pritam Kendre claiming the title in the men’s 10m air rifle event. Abhinav Deshwal then bagged another gold medal in the men’s 25m standard pistol event, while Shambhavi Shravan Kshirsagar and Abhinav Shaw bagged gold in the 10m air rifle mixed team event.India also bagged multiple silver medals through Prachi Gaikwad, Shiva Narwal, Shaurya Dilip Bharne, Aishwarya Ravichandra Balehosur and in multiple team events, highlighting the impressive depth of the youth team.“Topping the medal table at two consecutive World Championships is a great achievement,” NRAI president Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo said.“What pleases me most is that these 24 medals are not just from one or two individual stars. They are spread across rifle and pistol, individual, mixed and team events. This is proof that our structured grassroots program is working effectively,” he added.
Despite missed opportunities, marketing campaign was nearly perfect
The final tally for India is likely to be richer.Vanshika Choudhary was heartbroken after showing apparent confusion in the final moments of the women’s 10m air pistol final and failing to fire off the final shot in her bid for gold and a possible junior world record. The miss gave India a rare sweep of the podium.The team also lost another medal chance when Shambhavi Shravan Kshirsagar was disqualified in the women’s 10m air rifle team event for failing the ISSF garment stiffness test.Despite India’s dominance in rifle and pistol competitions, shotguns remain a concern. The team failed to win a medal in the skeet or skeet events, and no male shooter reached the finals. Bhavya Tripathi and Rishan Guron qualified for the women’s final but finished eighth and seventh respectively.
