ASIAN SHOOTING
SHYMKENT, (Kazakhstan), Aug 20: Indian shooter Anant Jeet Singh Naruka fired his way to his first individual gold medal in the Asian Championships after edging out Kuwait’s Mansour Al Rashidi in the men’s skeet final here on Wednesday.
Naruka finished on top of the podium after prevailing over former Asian Games champion Al Rashidi 57-56 in the final.
Al-Ishaq Ali Ahmed of Qatar settled for the bronze medal with 43.
The 27-year-old Naruka, who has won team gold and mixed team gold in the 2023 edition of the championships, qualified for the final in second position with 119 after five rounds, while Kuwait’s Abdulaziz Alsaad led the pack with 120 on their way to the final.
Al Rashidi was third in the qualification with 119.
For Naruka, an Asian Games silver medallist, this was his fifth medal overall in the continental tournament.
India continued their strong run at the Asian Shooting Championships in Shymkent, with the pair of Saurabh Chaudhary and rising teenage star Suruchi Inder Singh winning a bronze medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team event on Wednesday.
The duo overcame Chinese Taipei’s Liu Heng-Yu and Hsieh Hsiang-Chen 17-9 in the bronze medal match to add another medal to India’s tally.
The victory followed closely on the heels of double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker’s bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol event a day earlier, underlining India’s growing depth in pistol shooting.
Chaudhary and Suruchi had finished fifth in the qualification round, with Suruchi shooting 292 and Saurabh 286, for an aggregate of 578. That was enough to push them into the medal rounds, where six teams advanced. China and South Korea went on to contest the gold medal match—China eventually taking the title 16-12—while India and Iran secured the two bronze medals.
Suruchi, who has been in sensational form this season with four World Cup gold medals, made a blazing start in qualification by shooting a perfect 100 in the opening series. Though she stumbled with a 94 in the second, she recovered strongly to post 98 in the final round. Chaudhary was steady with a series of 95, 96, and 95.
In the bronze-medal clash, Suruchi’s precision proved decisive. She hit seven shots in the 10-ring, six of them at 10.4 or higher, ensuring India reached the 16-point target first.
India’s juniors also contributed to the medal rush. In the 10m air pistol mixed team junior event, the pairing of Vanshika Chaudhary and Gavin Anthony bagged bronze after a hard-fought 16-14 win over South Korea’s Kim Yejin and Kim Dooyeon.The Indian duo had earlier finished second in qualification with a combined score of 578—Vanshika shooting 282 and Gavin producing an impressive 296. Their composure in the medal round sealed another podium finish for India.India are leading the medal tally at the end of Day 2 with 14 medals — six gold, five silver and three bronze. (Agencies)