Asian Olympic Qualifiers: Sheoran wins gold, Tomar bags silver

Indian shooters Akhil Sheoran and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar claimed gold and silver respectively in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions event of the Asian Olympic Qualifiers on Friday.

Akhil Sheoran won the men’s 50m rifle 3-position at the Asian Olympic Qualifiers. (File Photo) | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Akhil Sheoran won the gold, beating compatriot Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar by 1.2 point in men’s rifle 3-position event in the Asian shooting championship in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday.

Akhil and Swapnil Kusale had already won the Olympic quota in the event, and thus the focus was on good performance and enhancing the country’s medal haul.

Swapnil also made the final and placed sixth eventually.

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The Olympic quota places were bagged by bronze medallist Thongphaphum Vongsukdee of Thailand and Konstantin Malinovskiy of Kazakhstan who placed fifth behind qualification topper Yu Hao (589) of China.

India will be eyeing the last of the Olympic quotas in men’s 25-metre rapid fire pistol event on Saturday.

Adarsh Singh and Vijayveer Sidhu kept themselves in the race with identical scores of 288, at the halfway stage, in rapid fire pistol. They will be fighting for the Olympic quota with shooters from Kazakhstan, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia.

China and Korea have already won their two Olympic quota places in the event, while India won the first quota through Anish Bhanwala.

India was proud on top of the medals table with 11 gold, eight silver and seven bronze. China followed with five gold, five silver and four bronze.

The results:

50m rifle 3-position: Men: 1. Akhil Sheoran 460.2 (586); 2. Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar 459.0 (588); 3. Thongphaphum Vongsukdee (Tha) 448.8 (583); 6. Swapnil Kusale 414.2 (584). RPO: Niraj Kumar 588; Chain Singh 588.