Deshwal shoots down gold

New Delhi, May 7

India won its second gold medal in the shooting competition at the ongoing 24th Deaflympics in Caxias do Sul, Brazil, with Abhinav Deshwal claiming the men’s 10m air pistol title.

The 15-year-old from Roorkee was tied with the silver-winning Ukrainian Oleksii Lazebnyk at 234.2 points apiece at the end of the 24-shot final. The Indian won the gold in a shoot-off in which he shot a 10.3 to his opponent’s 9.7. Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Ming-Jui won the bronze.

Deshwal made the eight-man final after finishing second in the 60-shot qualification round with a score of 575 out of 600. He was tied on points there too with Kim Kihyeon, but the South Korean was placed ahead on account of more inner 10s.

Shubham Vashisht, the second Indian in the field, also made the final, finishing sixth with a score of 563 in qualification. He bowed out placed sixth in the final as well.

Breaking a sweat

It wasn’t easy going for Deshwal in the final as he started slowly. He was fifth after the first five-shot series and moved up to fourth after 10 shots. He, however, displayed great consistency to string together some good scores as the single shots began and slowly climbed up the ladder, eventually catching up with Lazebnyk, who maintained a top-two position throughout the final.

Going into the final two shots, Deshwal was 0.6 behind Lazebnyk. He displayed nerves of steel to maintain high scores when it mattered the most even as Lazebnyk faltered, enabling the Indian to clinch the gold.

India now has four medals from the shooting competition.