Indian men's 10m air pistol team strikes gold at Asian Games, Sarabjot fumbles in finals

Hangzhou: The men's 10m air pistol team continued India's success story at the Asian Games here, winning gold with two marksmen also making it to the individual finals on Thursday.

The team of Sarabjot Singh, Arjun Singh Cheema and Shiva Narwal narrowly beat the Chinese team to take the top podium and earn India its fourth gold medal from the shooting ranges.

With today's success, Indian shooters have so far won four gold, four silver and five bronze medals. The Indian trio's aggregate score of 1734 was just one better than the Chinese team, which settled for the silver medal, while Vietnam, with a score of 1730, bagged the bronze.

Sarabjot and Arjun also made it to the eight-shooter finals and will be in contention for individual medals as well. It was another fruitful start for India on Thursday, with Sarabjot leading the way scoring 580 in the qualification round, while Cheema shot 578 and Narwal amassed 576 to aggregate 1734.

This was the third team gold at the shooting ranges here after the 10m air rifle top-podium finish and women's 25-metre pistol gold. Sarabjot, the 22-year-old, who won his first individual senior gold medal at the ISSF World Cup in Bhopal earlier this year, will be gunning for more success in the individual section as he is placed fifth among the eight finalists after the qualification round.

Sarabjot, whose success story started in 2021 when he won the junior air pistol team and mixed team gold at the ISSF World Championships at Lima, Peru in 2021, has been performing consistently ever since, bagging the mixed team gold at the recently-concluded World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan. (PTI)