InterShoot c’ship: Hat trick of gold for Saurabh, Divyansh

The Indian domination was complete as Saurabh Chaudhary and Divyansh Singh Panwar swept a hat-trick of gold medals in men’s air pistol and air rifle.

From left: Pradeep Singh, champion Divyansh Panwar and Pratik Borse at InterShoot championship at the Hague in the Netherlands.

The Indian domination was complete as Saurabh Chaudhary and Divyansh Singh Panwar swept a hat-trick of gold medals in men’s air pistol and air rifle respectively on the third day of the InterShoot international shooting championship which concluded at The Hague, the Netherlands, on Saturday. It was part of the Olympic preparation for the two young shooters, and they capitalised on the chance to compete in Europe, with resounding success. Saurabh topped qualification with 584 and won the gold with a total of 245.1, beating Joao Costa of Portugal by 2.8 points. Divyansh led an Indian 1-2-3 in air rifle, as he beat compatriot Pradeep Singh by 0.3 point for the gold. Pratik Borse finished third, while Manas Kumar Singh pipped qualification topper Deepak Kumar (630.8) for the fifth place. Five Indians in the final was truly dominant. It was a particularly impressive outing for the 17-year-old Divyansh as he had earlier won two gold medals in Austria and one in Germany, in other world class competition. Youth Olympics silver medallist Shahu Tushar Mane added to the Indian celebration by winning the junior men's air rifle gold, with a 0.1 point margin over Sanskar Havelia.

 

The results: Men’s air pistol: 1. Saurabh Chaudhary 245.1 (584); 2. Joao Costa (Por) 242.3 (578); 3. Julio Almeida (Bra) 218.0 (576); 4. Nikhil Kumar 194.0 (576). Men’s air rifle: 1. Divyansh Panwar 251.3 (628.3); 2. Pradeep Singh 251.0 (624.1); 3. Pratik Borse 229.0 (625.4); 5. Manas Kumar Singh 186.7 (625.0); 6. Deepak Kumar 165.8 (630.8); 13. Saurabh Mhatre 617.0. Junior men: 1. Shahu Tushar Mane 249.9 (630.1); 2. Sanskar Havelia 249.8 (626.4); 3. Martin Voss (Nor) 223.6 (615.0); Rishabh Tyagi 604.5. Women’s air rifle: 1. Ingrid Hakenasen (Nor) 249.2 (627.4); 2. Anneke Verheyden (Bel) 247.8 (621.8); 3. Barbara Shclaepfer (Sui) 227.3 (622.8); 4. Harshita Dahiya 205.9 (627.6); 8. Sapna Johnson 118.6 (620.9).