India’s junior women’s pistol team, comprising Olympian Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh and Shikha Narwal, struck gold on Day 8 of the 15th Asian Airgun Championship in Daegu, South Korea, taking India’s gold count to 23, with one day of the competition remaining. The trio beat the host country’s Kim Minseo, Kim Juhee and Yang Jiin 16-12 in the title clash.
India also won a silver on the day in the Women’s 10m Air Pistol team event, when Rhythm Sangwan, Palak and Yuvika Tomar, went down to Korea’s Kim Jangmi, Kim Bomi and Yoo Hyunyoung by a similar 12-16 margin in the gold medal encounter.
Manu, Esha and Shikha made the final after shooting through two rounds of qualification. In the first they topped the field with a score of 862 which equalled the Asian record in the event. They remained on top in the second qualification round as well with a combined score of 576. The hosts Korea followed them into the gold medal match, coming second with a score of 572.
The final was hard fought, but the Indian trio were too good for the Koreans in the end.
In the senior event, Rhythm, Palak and Yuvika came fourth in qualification round one with a score of 854, before topping round two to make the gold medal match. They shot 578 to Korea’s 576, who finished second. In the final however, the Koreans got the better of the Indians to claim gold. Singapore won bronze in the event.
The final day has the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team and Mixed Team Junior events on schedule and India will look to sign off with more wins for sure.
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