Indian shooters Sarabjot and Surbhi secure silver in Asian Championships

In a notable achievement, the Indian pair of Sarabjot Singh and Surbhi Rao secured the silver medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team event at the Asian Shooting Championships held in Changwon, Korea. The duo exhibited outstanding shooting skills but narrowly missed the gold medal, losing 4-16 to China’s Jinyao Liu and Xue Li in the final match.

This marks India’s second medal in the senior category at the ongoing Asian Shooting Championships. Prior to this, Sarabjot Singh had clinched an individual bronze medal in the men’s 10m air pistol event, a performance that not only added to the podium finish but also earned India its first Paris Olympics quota in the pistol events.

During the qualification round, Sarabjot Singh (293-10x) and Surbhi Rao (288-10x) combined their efforts to achieve a total score of 581-20x, securing the third position. However, it was Jinyao and Xue from China who topped the qualifiers with a score of 581-22x, while another Chinese pair, Ranxin Jiang and Bowen Zhang, came in second with 581-21x.

Although the rule typically permits the top two teams from the qualification round to progress to the gold medal match, only one team per country is allowed to qualify for the medal matches. This led to Ranxin Jiang and Bowen Zhang having to step aside.

In the skeet events, Indian shooters were unable to secure medals in both the men’s and women’s categories. Anantjeet Singh Naruka, who had won a silver medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, missed out on both a medal and an Olympic quota after finishing fourth in the final, with a score of 33 out of 40 shots.

Gurjoat Khangura also reached the men’s skeet final but was the first to be eliminated after missing five of the first 20 shots. He had secured the third position in the qualifying round with a score of 121 from five rounds.

In the women’s skeet event, Ganemat Sekhon was the highest-ranking Indian, finishing in the 15th position with a score of 108. Following her, Kartiki Singh and Parinaaz Dhaliwal claimed the 17th and 18th positions, respectively. Darshna Rathore secured the 19th spot with a score of 106 in a field featuring 28 shooters.

The Asian Shooting Championships are a crucial opportunity for athletes to secure a qualification spot for the Paris 2024 Olympics. A total of 24 Olympic quota places are available, with the top two finishers in each of the 12 Olympic shooting events securing coveted spots for their respective national teams.

-IANS