Continuing India’s surge, Saurabh Chaudhary wins silver at Asian Shooting Championship

Doha, November 12: Shooter Saurabh Chaudhary claimed silver medal in men's 10m air pistol event to continue India's surge at the 14th Asian Championship in Doha yesterday. World Cup and Asian Games gold-medallist shot 244.5 to finish second on the podium behind North Korea's Kim Song Guk, who won the top prize with a world record 246.5. Iran's Foroughi Javed bagged the bronze.

Chaudhary and Abhishek Verma with 583, had qualified for the finals in seventh and sixth place. However, Verma had to be satisfied with a fifth-place finish in the eight-man final. The trio of Chaudhary, Verma and Sharvan Kumar bagged the team bronze with a total of 1740 in the qualifying, finishing behind China (1745) and Korea (1744). Both Chaudhary and Verma had already secured their Olympic quotas in the earlier competitions.

Shreya Agrawal and Dhanush Srikanth won the gold medal in the 10m air rifle mixed team junior competition, while Gurnihal Garcha, Abhay Singh Sekhon and Ayush Rudraraju claimed the team gold in the junior men's skeet. Gurnihal Garcha also won an individual silver with a score of 50 in the finals.

In all, India picked up eight medals on the day. India won six Olympic quotas across events from the prestigious championship, taking their total to 15. The air pistol quotas from this competition went to Iran, North Korea and Pakistan as India and China had already secured the maximum two quotas each.