Asian shooting: Anant Jeet Singh Naruka wins gold in skeet

New Delhi: Paris Olympian Anant Jeet Singh Naruka won a close contest against Mansour Al Rashidi 57-56 to win gold in the men’s skeet final at the 16th Asian Shooting Championship in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.

Naruka had won a silver in the last edition and kept his composure under pressure to beat the seasoned former Asian Games champion. Naruka, who finished fourth in the mixed skeet event at the Paris Olympics narrowly missing out on an Olympic medal, has been consistent in his performance at the top level. Last year he won a silver medal in the World Cup Final in Delhi.

At the ongoing Asian meet, Naruka finished third in qualifying with a score of 119. In the 60-shot final Naruka was in top form and fired 29 of his first 30 targets. He took the lead, shooting 35 of 36 targets and was one hit ahead of his rival with 10 shots to go. Both shooters missed one in the tense final round, handing Naruka the prized medal. The women’s skeet trio of Maheshwari Chauhan, Ganemat Sekhon and Raiza Dhillon combined for a bronze in the team event.

In the air pistol mixed team event, Suruchi Phogat and Saurabh Chaudhary won a bronze. They shot 578 in the qualification with Suruchi scoring 292 and Saurabh 286. In the bronze medal match , the Indian duo beat the Chinese Taipei pair of Liu Heng-Yu and Hsieh Hsiang-Chen 17-9.

India added two gold medals in 10m air pistol mixed team junior and youth events. Vanshika Chaudhary and Jonathan Gavin Antony won the 10m air pistol mixed team junior event defeating the Korean pair of Kim Yejin and Kim Dooyeon 16-14. For Jonathan, it was his third medal of the championship, having also won an individual bronze and team silver.

Ganesh Gupta and Gamberya Gowda then beat Iran 16-14 in the gold medal match. India had topped the qualification with a score of 575. India thus ended the day on top of the medal tally with a total of 19 medals — nine gold, five silver and bronze medals each.