The shooting contingent continues to impress at the 2023 Asian Games, with the men's 10m Air Rifle contingent picking up a gold medal, alongside a bronze medal each in the men's 10m Air Rifle and men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol team events on Monday, 25 September.
The country's first gold in Hangzhou was won by the 10m Air Rifle team of Rudrankksh Patil, Aishwary Pratap Singh and Divyansh Singh Panwar before Aishwary won a second medal, in the individual event, a bronze.
The Indian trio won gold with a score of 1893.7 with Rudrankksh Patil, who won the World Championship gold in the 10m Air Rifle Individual event last year, shooting 632.5, Panwar contributing 629.6 points and Tomar adding 631.6 to the score as they topped the Team competition with Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar a total of 1893.7 points.
The Republic of Korea won the silver medal with a score of 1890.1 and host China took the bronze medal with a score of 1888.2, piping Iran to the podium by a whisker as the Iranians came fourth with a score of 1885.6.
The Indian combine shot superbly for an aggregate score of 1893.7, improving on the World Record of 1983.3 set by the Chinese at the ISSF World Cup in Baku in August this year.
At the end of the first round of 10 shots, the Indians were in the second spot with a score of 313.7 while China took the lead with 315.0. Korea started off with a score of 311.3 with Japan and Bangladesh ahead of them with 313.1 and 313.3 respectively.
The Indians shot 315.9 in the second round and then went from strength to strength with scores of 313.7, 315.9, 318.7 and 315.8 in the next three rounds to finish on top of the standings.
Korea had scores of 316.6, 315.0, 317.1, 316.0 and 313.5 for an aggregate of 1890.1 for silver while China shot 313.1, 315.9, 313.7, 314.1, 316.4 and 1888.2 in the second to 5th rounds to win the bronze medal.
Based on their scores in the qualification round, Rudrankksh and Aishwary qualified for the 8-shooter final in the Individual competition with scores of 632.5 and 631.6, finishing third and fifth respectively in the standings.
China's Lihao Sheng topped the qualifying round with a score of 634.5 setting a new Asian Games record for the qualifying round in the process.
Republic of Korea's Hajun Park was placed second in the qualifying stage with a score of 632.8.
In the final, Rudrankksh and Aishwary made it to the final four before it came down to the two for a spot in the top three. Rudrankkash in fact had been in the lead till this point but both shot 208.7 in the round and it went into a shoot-off. Aishwary then managed to outshoot his higher ranked compatriot and the 22-year-old assured himself of a medal. Rudrankkash was eliminated in the fourth position.
Korea's Hajun Park and Aishwary then were competing for a top two position with China's Lihao Sheng in the outright lead. Aishwary shot a 9.8 and bowed out of the competition.
The third medal of the day in shooting arrived in the men’s 25m Rapid Fire Piston team event, wherein the trio of Adarsh Singh, Anish and Vijayveer Sidhu secured a bronze medal.
India finished third on the podium with a total of 1718, behind gold medallists China (1765) and South Korea (1734).
India has sent a 33-member shooting contingent to the 19th Asian Games that will compete for a total of 51 medals. They will be competing in individual, team and mixed team events across three disciplines - rifle, pistol and shotgun. These Asian Games are also Olympic qualifiers for shooting with a total of 24 Paris Olympics quota places up for grabs - two in each of the 12 individual Olympic events across Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun.
At the 2018 Asian Games, India finished with 9 medals in shooting, including two golds, four silvers and three bronze.
The 2023 Asian Games stretch from 23 September to 8 October and are being hosted by the Chinese city of Hangzhou, after being postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. India has sent a 655 member contingent that will compete across 40 disciplines.
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