At 15 years, Jonathan clinches air pistol gold; Sift Kaur bags 50m rifle gold

DEHRADUN, Feb 3: Fifteen-year-old Bengaluru shooter Jonathan Antony delivered a grand performance on the biggest domestic stage when he outwitted Paris Olympics bronze-medallist Sarabjot Singh and the more fancied Saurabh Chaudhary to clinch the 10m air pistol gold at the National Games here on Monday.
Jonathan, shot a superb 240.7 for Karnataka in the final to overcame the challenge of Services veterans Ravinder Singh (silver, 240.3) and Gurpreet Singh (bronze, 220.1) and Sarabjot, who won a bronze in the Paris Olympics’ 10m air pistol mixed team event with Manu Bhaker last year.Sarabjot finished fourth on Monday.The champion marksman had earlier entered the final placed eighth with a score of 578, denying Olympian and national record holder Saurabh Chaudhary, who also shot an identical score but missed out in the shoot-off to finish ninth and out of contention for the eight-shooter final.Ravinder topped the qualification with 584, while Sarbjot finished second with an aggregate of 583.
Jonathan showed nerves of steel in the medal round despite some of his shots fetching him low-nine scores.
This would count as Jonathan’s biggest achievement in the senior category after the Bengaluru teenager won the 10m air pistol mixed team (junior) gold and bronze in the youth category. Punjab’s Sift Kaur Samra secured gold in the women’s 50m rifle 3-positions event after shooting a superb 461.2 to overcome the challenge of state-mate Olympian Anjum Moudgil, who shot 458.7.Surabhi Bharadwaj of Telangana bagged the bronze medal, shooting 448.8. (PTI)