The Chinese dominated, winning five of the six individual medals in the men’s and women’s sections of air rifle in the 11th Asian Air Gun Championship in Kuwait on Sunday.
Despite it being a very hectic season, the Chinese opted to field their best, as the former World Champion and Youth Olympics champion, Yang Haoran, Cao Yifei and Lu Yukun swept the medals in men’s event.
It was a heady climax as Yang Haoran beat Cao Yifei 10.4 to 10.1 in the second shoot off, after both had shot 10.6 in the first shot after being tied on 249.5 in the final.
Interestingly, the top three Chinese had finished in that order at the top, in qualification as well.
In women’s air rifle, Wu Mingyang and Zhao Ruozhu won the gold and bronze respectively, as Tessa Neo of Singapore claimed the silver with a total fo 250.7, a mere 0.6 behind the gold medallist.
Quite surprisingly, India could not field the senior shooters in the competition, despite having sent the entries, as the government did not clear the same.
"The proposal was denied during the discussion for the Annual Calendar for Training and Compettiton (ACTC) stage. We tried to press the case, but could not get the approval,’’ said Raninder Singh, the president of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).
Luckily, the juniors were cleared, and India has sent a 12-member team with four coaches.
"With great difficulty we were able to get the sanction for the juniors during the ACTC meeting’’, the NRAI president clarified.
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