Nagoya: Indian rifle shooters Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Niraj Kumar missed out on medals in the Men’s 50m 3 position event, finishing fifth and eighth respectively, in the final here at the Aichi Pref. General Shooting Gallery on Friday.
Aishwary finished fifth with 327.6, while Niraj placed eighth with 299.0. China’s bagged the 1-2 finish with Yukun Liu clinching the gold with a games-record score of 360.5, while Zhang Changhong bagged the silver with 360.2. Islam Satpayev took the bronze with 348.3.
Aishwary stayed in the mix through the early stages, holding sixth after the prone series before climbing to fifth with 205.3 after the second kneeling series, and eventually finished fifth overall. Niraj final proved tougher, and he ended last of the eight finalists on 299.
Aishwary had been one of India’s most successful shooters at the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou, returning with four medals. He won gold in both the men’s 10m air rifle and 50m rifle 3 positions team events, alongside individual bronze in the 10m air rifle and silver in the 50m rifle 3 positions.
Earlier, the trio of Aishwary, Niraj and Rudrankksh clinched a silver medal in the Men’s 50M Rifle 3 Positions team final, shooting a combined 1762-94x to take the second spot as China (1766-95x) clinched gold and South Korea (1751-87x) bagged the bronze medals.
In the 10m air pistol mixed team event, Suruchi and Kamaljeet produced a record-breaking performance to win the gold medal, combining for an Asian record score of 484.6 in the final.
It was India’s first Asian Games gold medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team event, improving on the silver won by Sarabjot Singh and Divya TS at Hangzhou 2023.
Suruchi and Kamaljeet had earlier topped qualification with 587-29x, equalling the Asian record and setting a new Asian Games qualification record.
India’s total medal tally in shooting currently stands at 10 with one gold, five silver and four bronze. India’s overall medal count is 19, including two gold, eight silver and none bronze medals.
(IANS)
