Ankur Mittal wins gold with Asian record at Asian Shooting Championship

Ankur Mittal set a new Asian Championship record to win gold in Double Trap at the 16th Asian Shooting Championship in Kazakhstan. India finished with 103 medals, its best-ever tally, including 52 gold, 26 silver and 25 bronze

Hyderabad: Former World No.1 and 2018 Changwon World Champion Ankur Mittal created a new Asian Championship record on his way to clinching the gold medal in the Double Trap event at the 16th Asian Shooting Championship in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.

The gold took India’s tally past 100 medals to 103 for their best-ever performance in the Asian Championship, with 52 gold, 26 silver and 25 bronze medals. Ankur Mittal also combined with Bhanu Pratap Singh and Harshvardhan Kaviya to win the team bronze in the Double Trap Team event.

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Ankur, with 107 hits, led throughout the four rounds of 30 each, with scores of 26, 28, 26 and 27, on his way to the gold medal. Local shooter Artyom Chikulayev from Kazakhstan won silver with 98, while Kuwait’s Ahmad Alaffasi claimed bronze in a shoot-off with 96 and +2.

In the Double Trap Junior category, Hatim Khan Mohammed, with 89 hits, won silver, while Manavrajsinh Chudasama secured bronze with 87. They both combined with Vinay Pratap Singh Chandrawat (81) to win the team gold in the event.

In the Double Trap Women’s category, India swept the podium with Anushka Singh Bhati (93), Rajkuwar Pranil Ingle (89) and Yeshaya Hafiz Contractor (87) winning gold, silver and bronze respectively. The trio also won the team gold in the event. In the Women’s Junior category, Avani Alankar Koli won bronze with 77 hits. She also secured team silver along with Krishika Joshi and Smita Sawant, who registered 61 hits each.

Manini Kaushik scored 617.8 to secure bronze for India in the 50m Rifle Prone Women’s event. Manini, along with Surabhi Bhardwaj (614.4) and Vidarsa K Vinod (613.8), also won the team silver. In the junior category, Prachi Gaikwad, with 616.6, finished second to take silver. She, along with Anushka Thokur (607.6) and Tejal Nathawat (599.2), won the team bronze in the 50m Rifle Prone Junior Women’s category.

In the 25m Centre Fire Pistol Men’s event, Rajkanwar Singh scored 289 in the precision round and 294 in the rapid round to finish with 583-22x and win the gold. He also combined with Gurpreet Singh (579-17x) and Ankur Goel (571-18x) to win the team gold.

Suraj Sharma (588-24x), Abhinav Choudhary (582-20x) and Mukesh Nelavalli (576-21x) swept the podium in the 25m Pistol Men Junior event, winning gold, silver and bronze respectively. They also combined to win the team gold in the event.

With a final tally of 103 medals, including 52 gold, 26 silver and 25 bronze, India recorded its most successful campaign in the history of the Asian Shooting Championship to finish first, improving by 39 medals from their previous outing at the 15th Asian Championships in Changwon, South Korea. Host nation Kazakhstan finished second, while China finished third in the medals tally of the 16th Asian Shooting Championship.