Teenager Dhanush Srikanth made his junior India debut count in glorious fashion, gunning down a double gold by winning both the individual and team 10m air rifle men junior competitions at the ongoing 14th Asian Shooting Championships in Qatar.
Taking aim on the penultimate day of the competition at the Lusail Shooting Complex, Srikanth first qualified for the finals with a relatively sedate 625.3, and then romped home with a 248.2 in the eight-man 24-shot final, leaving silver winner Jiang Xuanle of China a whole 2.5 points behind.
India’s Shahu Tushar Mane won bronze with a finals score of 226.4, after topping the qualification round with 629.3. Hriday Hazarika, who also reached the finals finishing eighth in qualification with 622.5, managed an overall seventh-place finish.
The trio had earlier secured the team gold with their qualification round exploits totaling 1877.1, ahead of silver-winning China and bronze-winning Korea.
There was a bit of a heartbreak for India in the junior women’s air rifle, however, where Shreya Agrawal, after shooting a sparkling 632 to top qualification by the proverbial mile, settled for individual silver in the end, coming second to China’s Yan Jinjing.
Yan shot 251.8 to Shreya’s 250.6 in the final. Khushi Saini also won individual bronze for India in the event with a finals score of 228.8. The trio of Shreya, Khushi and Aakriti Dahiya had earlier combined for a team bronze in the event with a total of 1877.1. Team China won gold with a new World and Asian record score of 1882.4.
Angad Bajwa followed up his gold-winning exploits in men’s skeet on Monday with silver in the mixed team skeet on the day partnering Ganemat Sekhon. The pair came second best to China’s Wei Meng and Jin Di in the final. The final score reading 36-33 in China’s favour.
Overall, India have till now picked up a total of 68 medals from the Championships, including 24 gold, 22 silver and 22 bronze with a day of competitions to go. China lead the medals tally.
Other Indian medals on day eight were as follows:
25m Pistol Women Junior: Trio of Abhidnya Ashok Patil (placed 8th in final; qualifying score 569), Niveditha Nair (6th in final; qualifying score 567) and Sneha Bharadwaj (10th with 567) won team bronze with a combined score of 1703 with China winning gold.
50m Pistol Men: Gaurav Rana silver (score 562); Arjun Cheema bronze (score of 560). Trio of Gaurav, Arjun and Monu Tomar won team bronze with a total score of 1653.
