India wins two more gold medals, ends Asian Airgun Championship with a whopping 25 golds

Manu Bhaker and Samrat Rana won the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team Junior event while Rhythm Sangwan and Vijayveer Sidhu took the gold in the corresponding senior event.

Rhythm Sangwan and Vijayveer Sidhu who won the mixed air pistol gold in the Asian Airgun championship in Daegu, Korea, on Friday. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Rhythm Sangwan and Vijayveer Sidhu won the mixed air pistol gold, by outclassing Irina Yunusmetova and Valeriy Rakhimzhan of Kazakhstan 17-3 in the 15th Asian Airgun championship which concluded in Daegu, Korea, on Friday.

With Manu Bhaker and Samrat Rana winning the junior mixed air pistol gold, with an identical 17-3 triumph over Nigina Saidkulova and Mukhammad Kamalov of Uzbekistan, India’s domination of the competition was complete.

India won 25 of the 28 gold medals, losing only the women’s air pistol team, youth women’s air pistol and men’s air rifle gold medals to host Korea.

India had skipped the last championship in Shymkent, Kazakhstan, when the host won 12 gold, 12 silver and 12 bronze medals.

When it competed the last time in 2019 in the Asian Airgun championship in Chinese Taipei, India had won 14 of the 18 gold medals.

The results:

Air pistol:

Mixed team: 1. India-2 (Rhythm Sangwan, Vijayveer Sidhu) 17 (579); 2. Kazakhstan (Irina Yunusmetova, Valeriy Rakhimzhan) 3 (577); 3. Korea 16 (573), 4. India (Shiva Narwal, Yuvika Tomar) 6 (573); 3. Korea-2 16 (572), 4. Japan 10 (575).

Junior mixed team: 1. India (Manu Bhaker, Samrat Rana) 17 (578); 2. Uzbekistan (Nigina Saidkulova, Mukhammad Kamalov) 3 (579); 3. Korea (Yang Jiin, Lee Seungjun) 16 (566), 4. India-2 (Sagar Dangi, Esha Singh) 14 (576); 3. Korea-2 17 (574), 4. Uzbekistan-2 5 (566).