Asian Airgun Championship: Saurabh Chaudhary wins gold

Chaudhary clinches Youth Olympics quota; Manu Bhaker also bagged the quota with a silver in the youth women's section.

The gold winning Indian youth men's team of Surinder Singh, Saurabh Chaudhary and Arjun Singh Cheema, in the Asian Airgun Championship in Japan on Monday.

Saurabh Chaudhary clinched the Youth Olympics quota in style by winning the individual gold medal in air pistol in the youth men’s section of the 10th Asian Airgun Championship which concluded in Wako City, Japan, on Monday. After qualifying in the third place with a modest total of 573, Saurabh was on top right from the start in the 24-shot final and eventually won with a 6.9 point margin over Erfan Salavati of Iran.

Arjun Singh Cheema, who qualified in the first place, ended up sixth, but along with Surinder Singh helped the Indian team reach the top of the podium with a 11-point margin over Korea.

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Indian aspirations were fulfilled with Manu Bhaker bagging the Youth Olympics quota with a silver in the youth women’s section. In fact, Manu had qualified on top with a score of 382, and was beaten to the gold by Xiao Jiaruixuan of China by 0.1 point.

Manu Bhaker won the Youth Olympics quota with a silver in youth women's section of the Asian Airgun Championship in Japan on Monday.

India had earlier won the Youth Olympics quota places in the rifle events for youth men and youth women, through Shahu Tushar Mane and Mehuli Ghosh respectively.

Other winners: Day 1 , Day 2 , Day 3

With Priya Raghav and Anushka Patil shooting 368 and 365 respectively, the Indian trio could only reach the fourth place behind China, Korea and Thailand in the youth women’s event.

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 grab individual medals after making the final with identical qualification score of 378.

With Yogita shooting 372, the Indian team won the silver with a six-point margin over Korea, while Iran topped comfortably with a total of 1144, 16 points ahead of India.

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.