Saurabh Chaudhary clinched the Youth Olympics quota in style with the individual gold medal in air pistol in the youth men’s section of the 10th Asian Airgun championship which concluded here on Monday.
After qualifying in third place with a modest 573, Saurabh was on top right from the start in the 24-shot final. He eventually won with a 6.9 point margin over Erfan Salavati of Iran.
Arjun Singh Cheema, who qualified in first place, ended sixth but along with Surinder Singh helped India top the podium with a 11-point margin over Korea.
Indian aspirations were fulfilled with Manu Bhaker bagged her quota spot with a silver in the youth women’s section. Manu qualified on top with 382 but was beaten to the gold by Xiao Jiaruixuan of China by 0.1 point in the final.
With Priya Raghav and Anushka Patil shooting 368 and 365 respectively, the Indian trio were fourth behind China, Korea and Thailand.
India had earlier won the Youth Olympics quota places in the rifle events through Shahu Tushar Mane and Mehuli Ghosh.
There was a team silver for India in the junior women’s air pistol in which World junior champion Yashaswini Singh Deswal and Mahima Turhi Agrawal could not win a medal after making the final with identical qualification scores of 378.
With Yogita shooting 372, India won the silver with a six-point margin over Korea, while Iran topped comfortably with a total of 1144.
With two gold and two silver medals from the day, India wound up its campaign with 21 medals in all, including six gold and eight silver.
The results: 10m air pistol: Youth men: 1. Saurabh Chaudhary 243.1 (573); 2. Erfan Salavati (IRI) 236.2 (563); 3. Shin Okcheol (Kor) 217.6 (573); 6. Arjun Singh Cheema 156.8 (577); 10. Surinder Singh 561.
Team: 1. India 1711; 2. Korea 1700; 3. China 1692.
Junior women: 1.Chen Yan (Chn) 240.1 (WRJ) 377; 2. Kim Yeseul (Kor) 237.6 (377); 3. Yoo Hyunyoung (Kor) 217.7 (377); 4. Yashaswii Singh Deswal 195.7 (378); 6. Mahima Turhi Agrawal 155.4 (378); 11. Yogita 372.
Team: 1. Iran 1144; 2. India 1128; 3. Korea 1122.
Youth women: 1. Xiao Jiaruixuan (Chn) 236.1 (378); 2. Manu Bhaker 236.0 (382); 3. Li Xue (Chn) 215.5 (380); 16. Priya Raghav 368; 22. Anushka Patil 365.
Team: 1. China 1131; 2. Korea 1128; 3. Thailand 1123; 4. India 1115.
