After bagging gold medals in wrestling at the Asian Games in Indonesia on Sunday and Monday, Indian athletes extended their gold medal tally to shooting, with teenager Saurabh Chaudhary bagging the top honour in the 10m air pistol men's final.
India's joy was doubled as Abhishek Verma bagged the bronze medal in the same event. Interestingly, both Chaudhary and Verma were making their Asian Games debut.
Chaudhary, who is just 16 years old, shot 240.7 to beat Japan's Tomoyuki Matsuda. Hobby shooter Abhishek Verma, making his Asian Games debut at 29, settled for the bronze medal in the same event with a score of 219.3.
In second position for most of the final, Chaudhary grabbed the lead after Matsuda fired 8.9 in his penultimate shot. Chaudhary went ahead with a 10.2 off his second-last shot and held the nerve to stay ahead.
Congratulations have begun pouring in for Chaudhary, led by Union Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, himself an Olympic medallist.
“I think it is the first time that we have so many fresh faces in the team,” Indian shooting coach Ronak Pandit told THE WEEK. “But the fact that they are in the team means they are the best shooters of the country during this period. All of them are extremely mature and, more than maturity, it is the level of being grounded and being at ease with competing at such a large stage that is extraordinary. There is self-confidence, belief in their abilities and hard work, and the will to fight in this young team. These are signs of a very bright future for shooting in our country. We have first timers ranging from 15 till 27, and they all gel very well with each other.”
Saurabh, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, has had a tremendous run of late, and had set the junior world record earlier in the year. In the 10m air pistol event at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl in Germany, Saurabh shot 243.7 in the final, breaking the world record of 242.5 held by Chinese shooter Wang Zhehao.
Before Chaudhary, Deepak Kumar bagged a silver medal in the air rifle event on Monday.
Bajrang Punia bagged India's first gold medal at the Asian Games when he won the men's 65kg wrestling event on Sunday. On Monday, Vinesh Phogat became the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Asian Games gold when she defeated Japan's Yuki Irie in the 50kg women's freestyle event.
(With inputs from Anirudh Madhavan)