Mahit Sandhu leads India’s medal rush in shooting at Deaflympics

Indian shooters won 16 medals, including seven gold, six silver and three bronze, at the Tokyo Deaflympics. Rifle shooter Mahit Sandhu led with four medals, while Abhinav Deshwal, Pranjali Dhumal and Dhanush Srikanth also starred in India’s dominant campaign

Hyderabad: The Indian shooters dominated the shooting ranges in Tokyo Deaflympics, winning 16 out of the total 39 medals in shooting over 10 days of competition, including seven gold, six silver and three bronze medals. The most successful shooter was rifle shooter Mahit Sandhu who won four medals, including two gold and two silver, followed by pistol shooters Abhinav Deshwal and Pranjali Prashant Dhumal who won two gold and one silver medal respectively. Dhanush Srikanth also won two gold medals in 10m Air Rifle individual and mixed team events, while Mohammed Murtaza Vania (one silver and one bronze) and Komal Milind Waghmare (two bronze) also won two medals each. Anuya Prasad won gold in the 10m Air Pistol Women’s event, while Shourya Saini won silver in 50m 3 Positions and Kushagra Singh Rajawat won bronze in 50m Rifle Prone event.

Indian shooters had earlier won a total of five medals, including three gold and two bronze, at the 24th Summer Deaflympics at Caxias do Sul in Brazil.

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On Tuesday, India’s Chetan Hanmant Sapkal finished the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol in sixth place as the Indian shooters ended the 25th Summer Deaflympics with a massive haul of 16 medals in Tokyo.

Chetan, who qualified for the finals in third place with a score of 564-5x, was the first shooter to be eliminated in the six-man final with a score of eight. South Korea’s Seung Hwa Lee won gold, while his teammate Tae Young Kim won bronze and Ukraine’s Serhii Ohorodnyk won silver.