Suruchi Singh and Kamaljeet win gold in 10m air pistol mixed team event at Asian Games after individual disappointments

Suruchi Singh, right, and Kamaljeet celebrate after winning Gold medal. (PTI Photo)

NEW DELHI: “Bas reset button dabaya maine,” Suruchi Inder Singh said after turning her disappointment into an Asian Games gold medal for India within two days. Suruchi and her teammate Kamaljeet won gold in the 10m air pistol mixed team event, finishing on top at the Aichi General Shooting Range on Friday. Suruchi, who was among the top medal contenders in the individual event, had endured a disappointing outing just two days earlier. The shooter, who won four individual World Cup gold medals in 2025 in Buenos Aires, Munich, Lima and Doha, including the World Cup Final, failed to qualify for the final of the individual 10m air pistol event. In a field of 55 shooters, she finished 26th in qualification with a score of 568-12x. The dejection was all over her face. She removed her shooting glasses, packed her pistol into its case, shook hands with her coach and support staff, and silently walked out of the Aichi General Shooting Gallery. Suruchi had dominated the event with her individual performances for almost two years and knew the expectations were high. But they all came crashing down in the space of an hour. Her silence said it all. Suruchi was shaken by the performance. But she knew she had another chance. On Friday, Suruchi returned, took aim and produced a stunning turnaround. She not only clinched gold for India but also paired with Kamaljeet to shoot a Games and Asian record of 484.6 and finish on top of the podium. Asked how the 20-year-old managed to turn things around within 48 hours, Suruchi said she had to hit the ‘reset button’. She spoke to her mother, met her coach and spent time reflecting on what had gone wrong. The message she kept telling herself was simple: “It’s okay, it’s done.” “I would say that perhaps it just wasn’t my day during the individual event. Or maybe I faced a technical problem that I couldn’t understand, which prevented me from recovering. I had to hit the reset button because I had another competition in two days. And I couldn’t do it alone. I spoke to my coach and my parents, and staying with them helped me get my mind in the right place,” Suruchi told TimesofIndia.com during a media interaction. “As soon as my match ended, I told myself, ‘It’s okay, it’s done.’ After that, my mother called and helped me get back into the right frame of mind. I had lunch and spent some time at the range. But by evening, I started feeling low again. I didn’t feel like eating anything after the disappointing match, nor did I feel like talking to anyone,” the pistol shooter said. “I felt that it was all over for me at the Games. There was no other match left for me. It felt like everything had come to an end. Once that one match was over, I felt there was nothing left,” she said.

Kamaljeet gets a second chance

Suruchi was not the only one who had endured disappointment in the individual event. Kamaljeet too had a difficult outing in the men’s 10m air pistol event. He finished ninth in qualification on Thursday, missing out on the final by just one point.

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He feared his maiden Asian Games campaign would end without a medal. “I was very sad. I was depressed because I felt that I would have to leave my maiden Asian Games without a medal,” he said. But Kamaljeet was handed another opportunity when he was brought into the mixed team event in place of Kedarling Balakrishna Uchaganve. “Samresh sir told me there was a change in the 10m mixed team event and that I was being brought in place of Kedarling. I was overjoyed when I got the message. I had got one more chance to win the elusive Asian Games medal,” he said. Kamaljeet grabbed that opportunity with both hands, teaming up with Suruchi to produce a record-breaking performance. “I am always ready to shoot. I like such challenges every day,” Kamaljeet said.

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