Swapnil Kusale asserted his class in the final by winning the junior men’s rifle 3-position gold, his second individual gold, in the 13th Asian shooting championship in Kuwait on Tuesday.
After qualifying in the fourth place with a modest total of 1151, Kusale dominated the final to eventually prevail over Wang Ce of China by 3.5 points for the gold.
In the process, Mohammad Hossein Karimi of Iran, who had topped qualification with 1163 was pushed to the bronze medal.
Kusale’s effort, along with Akhil Sheoran and Ishan Goel, fetched the team silver for India. He had earlier won the rifle prone, individual and team gold.
There was no matching success in the rapid fire pistol event for the Indian camp, but the squad managed to add the team bronze in the men’s section and the team silver in the junior men’s event.
Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar continued to grapple with his form, and shot 570 that placed him 12th in a field of 26 shooters.
Neeraj Kumar made the final with 577, but ended fifth.
Olympic quota winner Gurpreet Singh, shooting in the ‘’Out of Competition’’ section, a replacement for the MQS section, could also muster only 571.
Among the juniors, Shivam Shukla and Rushiraj Barot made the final, and eventually placed fourth and fifth respectively. Together with Arjun Das, the trio won the team silver, a distant second, 51 points behind Korea.
With a gold, two silver and a bronze medal for the day, the Indian team took its overall tally to 17 gold, 13 silver and 12 bronze medals on the penultimate day of the championship.
On the last day, there will be competition only in centre fire pistol.
The results:
Men:
25m rapid fire pistol: 1. Li Yuehong (Chn) 34 (585); 2. Zhang Fusheng (Chn) 32 (576); 3. Kim Jun Hong (Kor) 28 (586); 5. Neeraj Kumar 11 (577); 12. Vijay Kumar 570; 17. Akshay Suhas Astaputre 565. OOC: Gurpreet Singh 571.
Team: 1. China 1740; 2. Korea 1732; 3. India 1712. Junior men: 1. Park Jungwoo (Kor) 31 (573); 2. Jang Ji Won (PRK) 23 (557); 3. Youn Jinwon (Kor) 19 (573); 4. Shivam Shukla 11 (557); 5.
Rushiraj Barot 10 (556); 9. Arjun Das 534. OOC: George Thomas 514. Team: 1. Korea 1698; 2. India 1647; 3. Thailand 1616. 50m rifle 3-position: Junior men: 1. Swapnil Kusale 453.3 (1151); 2. Wang Ce (Chn) 449.8 (1153); 3. Mohammad Hossein Karimi (Iri) 438.6 (1163); 6. Akkhil Sheoran 404.2 (1134); 13. Ishan Goel 1105. Team: 1. China 3450; 2. India 3390; 3. Korea 3383.
