Indian shooter Vedika Sharma clinched the bronze medal in the women’s 10m air pistol event with a score of 207.2 on the fifth day of the ongoing Deaflympics 2021 in Caxias do Sol, Brazil.

In the qualification round, Sharma was eighth with a score of 538.0 while her teammate Pranjali Dhumal had a better outing and ended the round as the number one with a score of 561.0.

However, Sharma came back strongly to edge past her compatriot in the final to win a bronze while Dhumal managed to finish 4th with a score of 189.1.

Vedika’s bronze takes India’s medal tally to four at the quadrennial event. In the medal’s table, India currently stands at the eighth spot with two gold and two bronze medals.

10m Air Pistol (Women) results:

GOLD: AFONCHENKO INNA (UKR) 

SILVER: KAO YA JU (TPE) 

BRONZE: VEDIKA SHARMA (IND)

Vedika shot 207.2 in the finals to finish behind Chinese Taipei’s Kao Ya-Ju, who won silver with a score of 232. Ukraine’s Inna Afonchenko won gold with final tally of 236.3 at the end of the 24-shot eight-shooter final.

The final of the 10m women’s air pistol saw two Indian competitors with Pranjali Dhumal, who had in-fact qualified ahead of Vedika, finishing fourth to narrowly miss out on a medal. Pranjali had topped the qualification round with a score of 561 while Vedika had grabbed the eighth and final qualifying spot with a round of 538.

In the women’s 10m air rifle, two Indians again made it to the final round, however a medal eluded them. Priyesha Deshmukh finished fourth in the finals with a score of 203.4 while Natasha Joshi was seventh with 141.1. They had qualified in the exact same individual positions with scores of 618.9 and 617.6 respectively in the 60-shot qualification round.

It will be pertinent to note that the same scoring format that had been followed in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics last year in the sport is still being followed at the 24th Deaflympics 2021.

India has sent 10 Shooters in their 65-strong contingent for the Brazil Deaflympics. It is their largest and youngest ever squad and will be participating in 11 sporting disciplines.

Earlier in the event, rifle shooter Dhanush Srikanth and the badminton team had won gold medals for India. Dhanush had won gold and Shourya Saini bronze in the men’s 10M air rifle competition earlier on day three, to bag India’s first two Shooting medals of the ongoing Deaflympics.