Asian Games: Pistol shooters bag gold in Men’s 10m Team event; fifth gold in shooting so far

Hangzhou: The Indian trio Sarabjot Singh, Arjun Singh Cheema and Shiva Narwal won a gold medal in the 10m Air Pistol Team shooting in the Asian Games on Thursday as India continued to reap medals at the shooting range at the Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre, here.

After a sensational day on Wednesday when the Indian shooters won 7 medals including two gold, the pistol shooters continued India’s brilliant run by winning the fourth gold medal in shooting here.

Sarabjot Singh, Arjun Singh Cheema and Shiva Narwal finished with a combined score of 1734, with a whopping 50 hits in the inner 10 circle, to win gold ahead of China (1733-62x) and Vietnam (1730-59x).

The Indians scored 284 in the first series and then added 287, 291, 294, 290 and 288 in the remaining five.

This is India’s sixth gold medal overall in the Hangzhou Asian Games.

In the team competition, Sarabjot shot the best score for the Indians, 580 while Arjun Singh shot 578 and Shiva had 576.

However, Sarabjot and Arjun Singh Cheema could not replicate their performance in the Individual section, finishing fourth and eighth respectively.

Sarabjot had his chances in the Individual event too and was in contention for the bronze medal but a poor 8.8 on his 19th shot put paid to his hopes as he got eliminated with a score of 219.9.

“I am happy to win the gold in the team competition, but disappointed to miss the medal in the individual. I had my chances but made a couple of mistakes and that cost me a medal,” said Sarabjot after the final.

He said the aim for him now is to participate in the Asian championship and hope to grab a quota place for Paris Olympics.

IANS