Dhanush Srikanth wins India’s first shooting gold at Deaflympics in Tokyo

Dhanush Srikanth of Hyderabad set a new world deaf record in 10m Air Rifle to win India’s first gold medal in shooting at the Deaflympics in Tokyo. India bagged four medals on the opening day, including two silver and one bronze

Hyderabad: Dhanush Srikanth of Hyderabad smashed the world deaf record in 10m Air Rifle en route to winning India’s first gold medal in shooting at the 25th Summer Deaflympics, which is underway in Tokyo, Japan.

He also broke the Deaflympics qualification record to book his spot in the finals. In the finals, Dhanush shot 252.2 to better his own world record of 251.7 and clinched the gold medal, while his teammate Mohammed Murtaza Vania secured silver with a score of 250.1. The women shooters added a silver and bronze to make it four medals for India in shooting on the first day of competition.

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In the women’s 10m Air Rifle final, Mahit Sandhu won silver with a score of 250.5, 1.9 points behind Ukraine’s Violeta Lykova, who won the gold medal with a score of 252.4. India’s Komal Milind Waghmare made it a double podium finish for the Indian women, winning the bronze medal with a score of 228.3.

Dhanush’s score in the finals was higher than Germany’s Maximillian Dallinger, who shot 252.0 in the finals of the same event at the ISSF World Championships last week. The German became the world champion with a score of 252.0, which is 0.2 less than what Dhanush shot in Tokyo.

Earlier in the qualification, Dhanush shot 630.6 to better the existing Deaflympics world record of 625.1 set by South Korea’s Kim Woo Rim in the previous edition at Caxias Do Sul in Brazil. Mohammed Murtaza also bettered the existing Deaflympics score with 626.3. In the finals, both Indians were neck to neck throughout, but Dhanush had more high 10s, which edged him to the gold medal. South Korea’s Seunghak Baek won the bronze.

In the women’s qualification round, Mahit, who holds the qualification world record, secured her place in the finals in second place with a score of 623.4, behind Dain Jeong of South Korea, who broke the Deaflympics record to finish on top with 624.4. Komal Milind Waghmare finished third with 622.0.