Teen shooting sensation Saurabh Chaudhary claims Asiad gold on debut
PALEMBANG: Debutant teenager Saurabh Chaudhary clinched India’s first shooting gold of the 18th Asian Games, fetching the top honours in the men’s 10m air pistol event here on Tuesday.
The 16-year-old Chaudhary, who topped the qualifying round, shot a Games record score of 240.7 to pip Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsuda (239.7) in an exciting final to add a gold to India’s shooting tally of two silver and bronze this Asiad.
Hobby shooter Abhishek Verma, also making his Asian Games debut at 29, settled for the bronze medal in the same event with a score of 219.3.
In the second position for most of the final, Chaudhary grabbed the lead after Matsuda fired 8.9 in his penultimate shot. The Indian went ahead with a 10.2 off his second-last shot and held the nerve to stay ahead.
JAKARTA: Indian shooters Saurabh Chaudhary and Abhishek Verma bagged the gold and bronze medals respectively in the Men’s 10 metre Air Pistol final in the ongoing 2018 Asian Games here on Tuesday.
Saurabh, 16, clinched the gold after producing an Asian Games record score of 240.7. It was India’s third gold medal at the ongoing Games.
Abhishek, 29, stood third scoring 219.3 to take India’s medal tally to seven. He had finished sixth during the qualification round.
Tomoyuki Matsuda of Japan secured the silver with 239.7.
He and Saurabh pulled away for the gold medal battle with points of 220.1 and 220.5 respectively as Abhishek was eliminated with 219.3 points after eight series.
Matsuda, 42, was leading the charge going into the ninth and final series having led after each of the series. But in the final series, he came up with first shot score of 8.9 to blow his chances as Saurabh overtook him with a 10.2 in his first shot of the series.
In the second shot of the series, Matsuda scored 10.3 but Saurabh did well with 10.4 to seal the title.
At the beginning, Saurabh, who topped the qualifications after a score of 586, began his finals with a 50.6 in the opening five-shot series. In the second five-shot series, he scored 50.8 to take his total to 101.4, while Matsuda had 103.3 in total at this point of time.
In the third series, a two-shot round, Saurabh scored 18.6.
He then produced scores of 19.4, 20.0, 20.6, 20.2 to have a total of 200.2 at the end of seven series when Matsuda and Saurabh totalled 201.3 and 199.7 respectively as the top three places were determined.
In the eighth series, Saurabh, Matsuda and Abhishek got scores of 19.9, 19.2 and 19.6 as the latter was eliminated.
The drama unfolded in the final series, with Matsuda coming up with his worst shot of the entire final round to give the advantage to Saurabh, who grabbed the opportunity with both hands.