Aishwary Tomar wins gold as India sweeps rifle 3 positions

India completed a clean sweep in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions at the Asian Rifle/Pistol Championship in Delhi, with Aishwary Tomar winning gold, Niraj Kumar silver, and Akhil Sheoran bronze. Adriyan Karmakar added his second junior gold

Hyderabad: Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar showed his experience in the finals, hitting a 10.7 in the last shot to edge past teammate Niraj Kumar and clinch gold in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions, as India completed a clean sweep with Akhil Sheoran winning bronze in the Asian Rifle/Pistol Championship at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range in Delhi on Thursday.

Niraj Kumar, for whom this was the first individual international medal, went into the 35th and final shot with a 0.2-point lead over Aishwary. He fired first and hit a 10.3, giving Aishwary a target of 10.6 to win gold. The World Championship silver medallist held his nerve and hit a superb 10.7 to leap over Niraj and secure the gold. He finished with a total of 362.0 while Niraj ended with 361.8. Akhil Sheoran won bronze with a final score of 343.5.

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In the junior men’s finals, Adriyan Karmakar secured his second gold medal of the championship with a comfortable victory, shooting 353.2, which was 4.7 more than silver medallist Dmitriy Kim of Kazakhstan. India’s Manvendra Singh Shekhawat won bronze with a final score of 338.6.

Earlier in qualification, Niraj Kumar topped with 593-34x followed by Aishwary (588-40x) and Akhil (588-32x). 10m Air Rifle gold medallist Rudrankksh Patil shot 591-33x, the second-best score in qualification, but he was only shooting for ranking points. Nikhil Tanwar, also shooting for ranking points, scored 587-29x. The trio of Aishwary, Niraj and Akhil also won the team gold, with Japan and Kazakhstan taking silver and bronze respectively.

In the junior finals, Adriyan clinched gold comfortably, showing his class in the eight-man field. He did not lead only once, after the first five kneeling series. From the sixth shot onwards, Adriyan maintained a huge lead and completed his second gold medal of the championship. Manvendra Singh Shekhawat won bronze with 338.6. The third Indian in the final, Hemant Burman, finished fifth after going down in a shoot-off.

The Asian Shooting Championship will conclude tomorrow with medals in 50m Rifle Prone Women and 25m Centre Fire Pistol Men to be decided.