Rashmika's gold after Manu's bronze lights up the day for India at Asian Shooting Championship (Ld)

Shymkent (Kazakhstan), Aug 19 (IANS) Rashmika Sahgal struck gold, India’s third individual yellow medal of the competition, after Manu Bhaker, a double Olympic bronze medallist, displayed amazing career consistency, to nail yet another individual international medal, on competition day two of the 16th Asian Shooting Championship Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.

Manu shot 219.7 in the women’s 10m air pistol final to finish third, before Rashmika clinched the junior women’s air pistol crown with a confident show - her score of 241.9, a yawning 4.3 ahead of silver-winning Korean Han Seunghyun.

In fact, it was double delight for Rashmika (qualification score 582), as she combined with Vanshika Chaudhary (573) and Mohini Singh (565) to win the team gold in the event.

Manu (583) also won a team bronze in women’s air pistol alongside reigning Asian Games champ Palak (573) and Suruchi Phogat (574), both of whom missed out on the individual final by three and two points respectively.

In the final, Manu was fifth after the first five-shot series and fourth after the second, but a 10.5 on the 11th single shot took her up to second behind eventual winner Ma Qianke of China.

From then on, with Ma out of reach of the field, it was a battle of attrition for the minor places between Korean 25m pistol Olympic champion Yang Jiin, experienced Iranian Haniyeh Rostamiyan and Manu. The Indian, though, managed to fire the big shots when it mattered most, to settle for bronze, with Haniyeh finishing fourth.

In the junior women’s final, Rashmika was involved in a battle for supremacy from get go with Korea’s Han. However, she crept past her for the first time after the 13th single shot and from then on never looked back. A 10.9 on her 15th was the icing on the cake.

Since Monday, India has won an individual bronze and a team silver and a team bronze in the 10m air pistol events across both the senior men and women categories.

They have also swept the individual junior golds on offer in the event, with Kapil Bainsla showing the way on Monday, to be followed up by Rashmika Sahgal on Tuesday.

Also, while Kapil had a team silver in the event, Rashmika did manage to complete a golden double with help from teammates Vanshika and Mohini in the women’s junior team competition. Jonathan Gavin Antony also brought home a bronze in the junior men’s air pistol while Girish Gupta won the youth men’s air pistol gold and Dev Pratap the bronze in the youth men’s category. The youth team also won a gold in the event.

Overall, India has won five gold, two silver and four bronze medals from all competitions held so far.

--IANS

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