Chain Singh and Heena Sidhu claimed gold medals in the seventh Asian Air Gun Championship in Kuwait City on Monday.
It was a dominant fare from both as they led from start to finish in clinching the men’s air rifle and women’s air pistol gold medals.
World record holder Heena Sidhu topped the qualification phase as well with a score of 386, following rounds of 94, 97, 97 and 98.
Heena shot 200.3 in the final after having topped the qualification stage with 386. Heena won the gold, two points ahead of Chia Ying Wu of Chinese Taipei.
It could have been a double gold haul for Heena, but the team title was missed 20x to 21x on the value of more inner 10s, after India had tied with China on 1138.
Chain Singh was equally impressive even though he had qualified in the seventh place with a modest score of 619.6, as against Liu Zhiguo of China, who had topped with an Asian record of 630.3.
However, Chain Singh was at his best in the final, as he beat another Chinse Qin Cong by 1.5 points. In fact, Chain came up with a 10.7 last shot to seal the gold, after his lead had been reduced to 0.3 prior to it.
Apart from the three individual gold medals, India has collected two silver and two bronze medals in team championships. The Youth Olympic quota places will be at stake over the next two days that will feature junior and youth events.
The results:Men: 1. Chain Singh 206.0 (619.6); 2. Qin Cong (Chn) 204.5 (621.5); 3. Liu Zhiguo (Chn) 183.7 (630.3 AR); 6. Ravi Kumar 119.6 (620.7); 11. P.T. Raghunath 615.8.
Team: 1. China 1869.1; 2. Iran 1860.9; 3. India 1856.1. Women: Air pistol: 1. Heena Sidhu 200.3 (386); 2. Chia Ying Wu (Tpe) 198.3 (379); 3. Wadha Al Balushi (Oma) 177.3 (377); 5. Shweta Chaudhry 131.8 (378); 12. Harveen Srao 374. MQS: Annu Raj Singh 376. Team: 1. China 1138 (21x); 2. India 1138 (20x); 3. Chinese Taipei 1134.
