Incheon: Ace Indian shooter Jitu Raiclinched a historic gold in the 50m Pistol event on the opening day of the 17th Asian Games at the Ongnyeon International Shooting Range, today .
The shooter, who serves the Gurkha regiment, was on target from the word go after moving into the finals even as compatriot Omkar Singh failed to cross the qualification hurdle.
Rai accumulated 186.2 points in comparison to Phuong’s 183.4 and Zhiwei stood a distant third with 165.6 points. This was India’s second medal at the ongoing Games after Shweta Chaudhary’s bronze in the 10m air pistol event.
Shweta Chaudhary wins first medal for India at Asian Games Pistol shooter Shweta Chaudhrydefied odds, a travel-weary schedule and absence of her regular weapon to provide India with their first medal, a bronze, in the 17th Asian Games.
The Faridabad-born Shweta had to eliminate a rival through a shoot-off to ensure the bronze in the women’s 10M Air Pistol event with a total tally of 176.4 at the Ongnyeon shooting range here
China’s Zhang Mengyan won the gold with 202.2 while host country South Korea’s Jung Jee-Hae secured the silver with 201.3.
Having qualified for the 8-woman finals with a total score of 383 even as her more fancied teammate Heena Sidhu got eliminated after notching up 378, Shweta, 28, showed exemplary poise to fight her way back in the finals.
I am happy I got the first medal for India, it’s a bronze but a medal is a medal. This is the biggest medal for me till now. I was thinking of first or second place in the beginning when it was good but in the middle I lost a bit.
That 8.4 was a bad shot (leading to shoot-off),” the Faridabad shooter told reporters after winning the bronze.
Bureau Report
Leave a Reply