Rohan Chowdhury
India ended day 3, on Wednesday, at the 16th Asian Shooting Championships, in Shymkent, Kazakhstan, with Anant Jeet Singh Naruka sealing the gold medal in the men’s skeet. He won in a hard-fought contest against Kuwait’s Mansour Alrashidi – 57-56. It marked a significant addition to the medals tally because shotgun medals are comparatively less when the entire spectrum of Indian shooting is considered.
Thursday, August 21, started for India with the men’s 10 rifle. Two shooters qualified for the finals, and they were the expected ones — Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil and Arjun Babuta. Patil topped the qualification rounds with 632.3 while Babuta was fourth with 631.6. Kiran Ankush Jadhav performed well, finishing tenth with 628.6.
However, both of them failed to make the podium. Patil came fourth in a nail-biting encounter versus South Korea’s Park Hajun. His points were 207.6 to Park’s 207.9. Munich World Cup gold medallist Babuta finished fifth with 185.8. However, the team won gold, consisting of Patil, Babuta and Jadhav. They finished with 1892.5 (the combined score of the qualification rounds), above China (1889.2) and South Korea (1885.7).
In the junior category, in the same discipline, Abhinav Shaw bagged the gold with 250.4 points, beating South Korea and China, who in turn took the second and third places respectively. Himanshu and Pranav Naraen Suresh were the other two finalists, who finished 4th and 6th with 206.6 and 165.0 in a shoot-off. In the team’s event, India bagged gold above China and South Korea with 1890.1.
In the current tally, India sit at the top with 22 medals, including 12 golds, and 5 silver and bronze medals each, across senior and junior categories.
Friday, August 22, will have the women’s 10m Air rifle final along with the mixed team skeet final.
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