Saurabh shoots down another gold

Kuwait city, November 8 

India’s teenage shooting sensation Saurabh Chaudhary continued his incredible run by claiming his fourth individual gold medal in as many months with a top finish in the 10m air pistol junior men’s event of the Asian Airgun Championship here today. 

The 16-year-old, son of a farmer based in Meerut, also combined with Arjun Singh Cheema and Anmol Jain to log a total of 1731 to win the team gold. He fetched the individual gold with 239.8 in the eight-man final to finish with two gold medals.

Saurabh won the gold medal at the Asian Games in August, besides bagging gold medals at the World Shooting Championships in September and the Youth Olympic Games in Argentina last month. Arjun (237.7) secured the silver medal, while Chinese Taipei’s Huang Wei-Te clinched the bronze with a score of 218.0 to deny India a clean sweep. Anmol finished fourth with a score of 195.1. The Indian trio missed the junior world record by a point. Earlier, the Indians dominated the qualifying stage with Arjun topping the standings with a score of 578 after 60 shots. Anmol was second with 577 while Saurabh was placed third with a score of 576.

Manu wins team silver

However, Youth Olympics champion Manu Bhaker missed out on an individual medal by finishing fourth in the girls’ 10m air pistol final with a score of 196.4. Abhidnya Patil also made it to the final but finished seventh. Manu had topped qualification with a score of 579. The Indian team of Manu, Abhidnya and Neha won the silver in the event with a combined tally of 1694 points. China won the gold with 1704.

India now have 10 medals from the competition, with three gold, five silver and two bronze medals. — PTI