Asian Shooting C'ship: Teenagers help India dominate gold rush in Shymkent

New Delhi, Aug 21 (IANS) Teenaged Indian shooters dominated the headlines on day four of the 16th Asian Shooting Championship Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun in Shymkent, Kazakhstan, picking up as many as four of the five gold medals India won across individual and team competitions. It bulged India’s medal tally to 26 medals, including 14 gold, six silver, and bronze medals each, firmly cementing their position at the top of the standings.

Earlier, while all three shooters in the men’s 10m air rifle senior event shot brilliant qualification rounds to give India yet another team gold, Rudrankksh Patil and Arjun Babuta could not convert the opportunity into individual medals, finishing fourth and fifth in the final, respectively.

Patil looked more in contention for a medal right through the final, before bowing out after the 20th shot of the 24-shot final on a score of 207.6. Teammate Babuta had departed two shots earlier with 185.8 as local favourite Islam Satpayev of Kazakhstan took gold, Lu Dingke of China silver, with Park Haejun of Korea claiming bronze.

“Experienced” junior Abhinav Shaw, began the gold rush for India, first teaming up with Naraen Pranav (third with 631.1) and Himanshu (fourth with 630.9), to shoot 628.1 in qualification, not only clinching a spot in the final for himself, but also ensuring that the trio’s tally of 1890.1 was an Asian and world junior record apart from the gold for India.

He then shot a thrilling final, beginning fifth on the grid after the first five-shot series, and soaring to the lead after the second. The end stages were a battle of attrition with Lee Hyunseo, two years his senior, but Shaw showed admirable nerves to first lose the lead after two high 9s on his 17th and 18th shots, to piping the Korean by 0.1 in the end, not going below 10.4 for his last six shots. The 21st, a 10.9 being the icing on the cake.

It was the turn of Mansi Raghuwanshi over at the Shotgun ranges then, where she triumphed in the junior women’s skeet final, with a tally of 53 out of a possible 60 targets. Compatriot Yashasvi Rathore won silver with 52, while Kazakh Lidiya Basharova took bronze.

Mansi finished the strongest, catching all her last 10 targets, while Yashasvi missed two to settle for silver. Agrima Kanwar, the third Indian in the field, also reached the final to finish sixth.

In the junior men’s skeet, Harmehar Singh Lally (115, 3rd in qualification) and Jyotiraditya Singh Sisodia (110, 5th in qualification) won individual silver and bronze medals, each with scores of 52 and 43 in the final, respectively. Kazakhstan’s Artyom Sedelnikov won gold with 53 hits.

The duo was not to be denied gold on the day, however, as they combined with Atul Singh Rajawat (107) to bag the junior men’s skeet team gold with a tally of 338, four ahead of the silver-winning Kazakhs.

--IANS

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