Asian Shooting Championships: Gurpreet Singh Helps India To Centre Fire Pistol Gold, Manini Kaushik Claims Silver

Indian pistol shooter Gurpreet Singh produced an inspired showing for the second day on the bounce to help the nation to the team gold in the 25m centre fire event on Friday in the Asian Shooting Championships.

Gurpreet registered a big win in the centre fire event with an aggregate score of 1733 points, to add to his 25m standard pistol individual gold in addition to the top-podium finish in the team category as well, the 37-year-old Army shooter, along with Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu and Ankur Goel.

The Olympian, who nearly reached the rapid-fire pistol final at the 2016 Rio Games, achieved a combined precision and rapid round score of 579. Along with Sandhu (583) and Ankur (571), the trio amassed 1733 points, securing the team gold.

Vietnam (1720) and Iran (1700) claimed the silver and bronze respectively.

Young Indian shooter Manini Kaushik won her first individual international medal, taking bronze in the women’s 50m rifle prone event after helping the team to a silver earlier in the day.

The 24-year-old from Jaipur, who also competes in the 50m rifle 3 positions, scored 617.8 to earn the individual bronze.

The South Korean pair Hana Im (620.2) and Eunseo Lee (620.2) took the gold and silver respectively.

Manini had finished fifth in the competition, but since two shooters ahead of her—South Korea’s Yelin Choi (620.1) and India’s Sift Kaur Samra (617.9)—were competing in the ‘Ranking Points Only’ (RPO) category, the Jaipur shooter secured the bronze.

RPO shooters compete only for international ranking points and not for medals.

Manini’s scores in the six series of 10 shots each were 104.0, 103.8, 101.2, 103.3, 103.2, and 102.3.

She also contributed to India’s team silver in the 50m rifle prone, a non-Olympic discipline.

The trio of Manini (617.8), Surabhi Bharadwaj (614.4), and Vinod Vidarsa (613.8) totalled 1846 points for silver, with South Korea winning gold (1856.8 points). Kazakhstan placed third with 1828.2 points.

India’s Prachi Gaikwad won the junior women’s 50m rifle prone silver with a score of 616.6. South Korea’s Sehee Oh took gold (618.6), while Kazakhstan’s Sofya Malkina earned bronze (616.3).

The trio of Prachi (616.6), Anushka Thokur (607.6), and Tejal Nathawat (599.2) secured the team bronze with a total of 1823.4 points. South Korea won gold with 1844 points, and Kazakhstan took the silver with 1830.1 points.