Finance
At the 16th Asian Shooting Championship Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun, which is currently taking place in Shymkent, Kazakhstan, India won both the senior and junior 10m air rifle mixed team events on Saturday, giving Elavenil Valarivan, Shambhavi Kshirsagar, and Naraen Pranav their second gold medals. This brings their total number of gold to 22.
India’s second pair, Mehuli Ghosh (317.7) and Rudrankksh Patil (314.9), both shot well, finishing second on the leaderboard with a score of 632.6. Ela (316.3) and Arjun (317.7) posted 634.0 in qualification to top the 27-team field in the Olympic tournament.
Ela and Arjun set up a gold medal matchup with the young Chinese duo of Peng Xinlu and Lu Dingke, who finished third with 632.3, while Mehuli and Rudrankksh were denied a medal due to the tournament’s regulations.
In the race to 16 points, the Indians got off to a fast start, but the Chinese quickly responded, and they wouldn’t take the lead again until the tenth round of single shots. They also took the eleventh series to put themselves ahead 13-9, but the Chinese took a break and returned with two powerful shots to cut the deficit to 13-11.
However, the Indians took the next two and easily won because they fired nothing below 10.5 after that.
Naraen Pranav and Shambhavi Kshirsagar advanced to the gold medal match in the air rifle mixed team junior competition after finishing third in qualification with a score of 629.5.
Himanshu and fellow countrymen Isha Taksale finished fourth with 628.6, missing out on a medal.
The match remained level throughout the first nine series, with the two teams still locked at 9-9. In the final, the Indian duo faced another Chinese pair, Tang Huiqi and Han Yinan. In order to reach the goal, the Indians then put together a string of high 10s to create a six-point margin, thus matching the 14th and final series.
With 22 gold, 8 silver, and 10 bronze medals at the end of the day, India continued to lead the medal standings with 40. The junior and youth shooters have taken home the remaining medals, with the seniors having won four gold, one silver, and five bronze thus far.
Source: IANS
