Deaflympics: Abhinav, Pranjali win air pistol mixed team gold as India adds 11th medal

Indian shooters continued their stellar performance at the 25th Deaflympics,Global games for deaf on Wednesday, with Abhinav Deshwal and Pranjali Prashant Dhumal clinching gold in the 10m Air Pistol mixed team event. Kushagra Singh Rajawat also secured a bronze in the 50m Rifle Prone competition, taking India’s overall medal tally with 11 medals (4 gold, 4 silver, 3 bronze) at the 25th Summer Deaflympics 2025 in Tokyo, India is currently placed 4th on the overall medal tally leaderboard.

Abhinav and Pranjali dominated the final, defeating Ya-Ju Kao and Ming-Jui Hsu of Chinese Taipei 16-6. From the very start, the Indian duo maintained a commanding position and left their opponents with no opportunity for a comeback.

The pair had already equalled their own Deaf World and Olympic record during the qualification round, posting a combined score of 569-20x. Abhinav fired 287-12x (97, 95, 95), while Pranjali contributed 282-8x (95, 94, 93). Both shooters had earlier won silver medals in their respective individual events on Monday.

In the 50m Rifle Prone event, Kushagra Singh Rajawat earned bronze with a final score of 224.3. Ukraine’s Dmytro Petrenko claimed gold, setting a new Deaf World and Olympic record of 251.0, while Germany’s Colin Mueller took silver with 245.4.

Another Indian pair, consisting of women’s individual champion Anuya Prasad and Rudar Vinod Kumar, finished seventh in the mixed team qualification, scoring a combined 553-10x. Anuya shot 280-5x (93, 91, 96) and Rudar 273-5x (92, 90, 91). The bronze in that event went to Mahla Samiee and Bijan Ghaffari of Iran, who defeated Ukraine’s Sofiia Olenych and Oleksandr Kolodii.

Looking ahead, Mahit Sandhu and Natasha Joshi will compete on Thursday in the 50m 3 Positions women’s event. Mahit has already claimed gold and silver in the 10m Air Rifle mixed team and individual events respectively, making him one of India’s standout performers at these Games.