Shymkent (Kazakhstan), Aug 20 (IANS) Olympian Anant Jeet Singh Naruka, was third time lucky, as he turned his silver from last year to gold, overcoming former Asian Games champion Mansour Al Rashidi’s challenge 57-56 in the process, in the men’s skeet final of the 16th Asian Shooting Championship in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.

Shooting on Day Three at the Shymkent Shooting Plaza, Naruka first finished third in qualifying with a score of 119 over two days, before shooting a confident final from the very first shot of the 60-shot decider, to land the biggest medal of his career.

He shot 29 of the first 30 targets, then took the lead for the first time in the match, shooting 35 of the first 36, and went into the final 10 shots, one hit ahead of the champion Kuwaiti. He held on gamely as both missed one in the final round, erasing memories of his silver to another legendary Kuwaiti in Kuwait City last time around.

India also picked up two more gold medals on the day in the 10m air pistol mixed team junior and youth events, while also winning bronze in the senior air pistol mixed team through Suruchi and Saurabh Chaudhary, with the senior women’s skeet trio of Maheshwari Chauhan, Ganemat Sekhon and Raiza Dhillon, combining for a bronze in the team event.

India thus ended the day on top of the medal tally as they had on Day Two, with a total of 19 medals now, nine of them gold, to go with five silver and bronze medals each.

Among the seniors, the pair of Suruchi and Saurabh Chaudhary began the day with a bronze in the 10m air pistol mixed team competition. They shot a combined 578 in qualification (Suruchi 292, Saurabh 286) to qualify for one of the two bronze medal matches against the Chinese Taipei pair of Liu Heng-Yu and Hsieh Hsiang-Chen. They won the bronze match with a 17-9 margin.

The women’s skeet team then confirmed the day’s second bronze when their combined qualification score of 329 (Maheshwari 113, Ganemat 109, Raiza 107) landed them the bronze behind China and Kazakhstan.

Olympian Maheshwari was the only one to make the individual final, finishing fourth, which was how she ended the final as well, shooting 35 of the first 40 targets to miss out by one lost bird, as the Kazakh who edged her had a higher bib number.

Also on Day Three, the junior and youth shooters continued their gold rush, winning both the 10m air pistol mixed team junior and youth competitions, helping lift India in the standings.

Vanshika Chaudhary and Jonathan Gavin Antony won the 10m air pistol mixed team junior event, defeating Koreans Kim Yejin and Kim Dooyeon 16-14 in a tight final. The pair held their nerve when it mattered most to finish strong and register a come-from-behind win. Also, it was the young Jonathan’s third medal of the championship, having won an individual bronze and team silver in the earlier days.

Later, the pair of Ganesh Gupta and Gamberya Gowda defeated Iran 16-14 in the gold medal match to clinch the air pistol mixed team youth crown. They had earlier topped the qualification with a score of 575.

–IANS

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