Asian Games: Suruchi, Kamaljeet redeem Indian shooting with 10m pistol mixed team gold

Suruchi Singh and Kamaljeet won gold in the mixed 10m air pistol final with an Asian-record score of 484.6 points at the Asian Games. NRAI president Kalikesh Singh Deo hailed their performance after India’s earlier disappointing pistol events.

Nagoya: National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Kalikesh Singh Deo hailed 10m pistol mixed team gold, stating that the Indian pistol shooters redeemed themselves well after a little after a bit of a disappointment in men’s and women’s teams and individual events.

India’s Suruchi Singh and Kamaljeet won the gold medal in the mixed 10m air pistol final with an Asian-record score of 484.6 points, securing India’s second gold medal at the Asian Games after the women’s cricket team.

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“Great day for Indian shooting; we finally got the elusive gold after a bit of a disappointment. However, our shooter redeemed themselves well with an Asian record and a gold. Amazing performance from Suruchi and Kamaljeet. We have a lot of shooting left here, and I am hopeful India will do well in the remaining events,” Kalikesh told IANS on Friday.

Earlier, India drew a blank in the men’s and women’s 10m pistol team, and in the individual event, Kamaljeet, Kedarling Balakrishna and Aakash Bhardwaj missed out on a medal in the men’s 10m air pistol team and also failed to qualify for the individual finals.

Moreover, there was an agonising end for the Indian trio Esha Singh, Manu Bhaker and Suruchi Inder Singh in the team final as they lost the medal as the two inner-10s stand between them and bronze medallists Vietnam. Later, Manu finished fifth in the individual final. But the mixed team of Suruchi and Kamajeet broke the draw and got India the elusive gold on Friday.

Reflecting on India’s disappointing show in the pistol team and individual event, the NRAI chief added, “In the first two days we got five medals, then skeet contributed three, and today we got two medals. This is a fairly big number of medals, but what we were missing out on was gold. When you go zero in the finals, it depends on the the performance at that time of that athlete. We have to figure out how we have to work with an athlete, coaching and performance team so that we can get more golds.”

Manu and Esha next join the 2018 Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat in the 25m pistol event to open their respective medal accounts.

“We have a great team of Esha, Manu and Rahi, an experienced team. They will do well,” Kalikesh concluded.