Indian 10m air rifl e team claim gold with world record score, Aishwary bags individual bronze

Hangzhou: Indian shooters made a telling statement at the Asian Games, winning three medals, including a team gold, as the country's marksmen asserted their class by grabbing five podium finishes in just two days of competition here.

A confident Indian 10m air rifle team led by teenage world champion Rudrankksh Patil gave the country its first gold medal at the continental Games, securing the top place on the podium with a world record score on Monday.

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar then earned the country an individual bronze -- India's fourth in shooting so far -- in the event after a keen duel with compatriot Rudrankksh, who finished fourth.

The 25m rapid-fire team, comprising Adarsh Singh, Anish Bhanwala and Vijayveer Sidhu, took the third spot with an aggregate score of 1718 after a tie with Indonesia.

China took the gold with a score of 1765, while South Korea bagged silver, aggregating 1734. The trio of Rudrankksh, Olympian Divyansh Singh Panwar and Aishwary aggregated 1893.7 in the qualification round to beat back the challenge of the shooting powerhouse China and South Korea on way to the 10m air rifle team gold.

In one of the most dominating displays seen by Indian air rifle shooters in multi-discipline events, the 19-year-old Rudrankksh shot a superb 632.5, Tomar 631.6 and Panwar 629.6 to aggregate the world record score as South Korea was pushed to second spot (1890.1), while the Chinese team was a distant third with an aggregate score of 1888.2.

India would be slightly disappointed at missing a gold, or a sliver, in the individual category following the red-hot form shown by both Tomar and Rudrankksh in the qualification round.

However, both the Indians could not recreate the magic of the qualification round in the eight-shooter finals with Tomar, after a dogged battle with Rudrankksh, edging out the teenage shooter to win bronze in shoot-off for third place, scoring 228.8. (PTI)