Manu Bhaker-Saurabh Chaudhary smash world record; bag mixed team gold at Asian C’ship

Manu Bhaker and Saurabh shot a combined score of 784 in the qualification round.

Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary broke the qualification world record at the 12th Asian Airgun Championship.

Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker were in irresistible form as they shot the mixed air pistol team gold, along with a world record, in the 12th Asian Air Gun shooting championship in Taoyuan, Chinese Taipei, on Wednesday.

There was more cheer for the Indian camp, as Esha Singh and Vijayveer Sidhu, captured the junior mixed air pistol team gold medal, to assert India’s domination.

Manu and Saurabh shot 484.8 in the final to beat the Korean team by 3.7 points, after having shot 784 in qualification for a new World Record.

Saurabh who had won the Olympic quota place last month in the World Cup at home shot 396 out of 400, while Manu shot 388.

Saurabh and Manu had also won the mixed team gold in the World Cup, equalling the then World Record of 778 in qualification.

The second Indian team of Anuradha and Abhishek Verma shot 764 with the latter accounting for 391, but placed fourth in the final.

Esha and Vijayveer topped qualification in the junior event with 769, and won the gold 1.6 point ahead of the Korean team. The second Indian team of Harshada Nithave and Arjun Singh Cheema placed fourth.

The results: Mixed air pistol: 1. India (Manu Bhaker, Saurabh Chaudhary) 484.8 (784 WR); 2. Korea (Hwang Seongeun, Kim Mose) 481.1 (764); 3. Chinese Taipei (Chia Ying Wu, Kuan-Ting Kuo) 413.3 (763); 4. India-A (Anuradha, Abhishek Verma) 372.1 (764) Mixed air pistol juniors: 1. India (Esha Singh, Vijayveer Sidhu) 478.5 (769); 2. Korea (Jo GAeun, Kim Wojong) 476.9 (765); 3. Chinese Taipei (Hao-Zhen Liu, Wei-Te Huang) 414.4 (744); 4. India-A (Harshada Nithave, Arjun Singh Cheema) 375.0 (755)