Shooting stars: Mukesh & Palak shatter world record to win mixed team pistol gold for India

Mukesh Nelavalli and Palak Gulia were on fire as they registered a new world record score to win the gold medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team event at the ISSF World Cup 2026 Granada in Spain on Tuesday.

Mukesh and Palak scored 487.7 in the final, eclipsing the previous record of 481.3 created by Uzbekistan’s Nigina Saidkulova and Mukhammad Kamalov at the Asian Shooting Championships in New Delhi earlier this year.

Mukesh, a native of Srinagar, is currently pursuing his fourth year of B Tech at KL University in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. Having competed in the junior category until last year, Mukesh has won a total of 22 international medals across various disciplines.

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Haryana’s Palak, the reigning Asian Games champion in women’s 10m air pistol, and Mukesh dominated the final from the start and finished above shooters from People’s Republic of China, Hungary and the USA in a four-team medal round.

China’s Yao Qianxun and Hu Kai, the reigning world champions, scored 484.8 to settle for silver while Hungary’s Veronika Major, a Paris 2024 Olympic medallist, and Akos Karoly Nagy took bronze with 414.9. The American duo, En Tobar Prado and Maurer En, finished in fourth place with a score of 349.1.

Olympians Chain Singh, Anjum Moudgil lead Indian shooting squad at ISSF World Cup 2026

This was Mukesh’s maiden medal of any colour at ISSF World Cups as he was taking part in his first World Cup while for Palak, who had won a silver and a bronze before, it was the first gold medal in the shooting competition.

Earlier, the Indian shooters had shot 581-17x to finish second in the qualifiers behind the Chinese team. The second Indian team of Sainyam and Ujjawal Malik finished ninth with 576-15x.

Later in the day, Indian shooters disappointed in the 10m air rifle mixed team competition as neither of the two pairs qualified for the final.

Sonam Uttar Maskar and Gajanan Khandagale scored 631.4 to finish sixth while Arshdeep Singh and Shruti were 19th with 628.0. Only the top four teams made the final.

The Granada shooting meet is the first ISSF World Cup of the year for rifle and pistol shooters.