India open with five medals in Asian Shooting C'ship

Kuwait City: The Indian shooting squad began its campaign at the 13th Asian Shooting Championship on an impressive note as they bagged five medals but the seniors, including Ronjan Sodhi, could not finish on the podium on day one of competition here today.

The 10-metre air rifle women's youth team won the day's only gold for India when Prachi Gadkari, Gayatri Pawaskar and Aashi Rastogi finished with a combined total of 1226.8 at the end of their qualification rounds.

The Korean team won the silver, while Bangladesh won the bronze in the event.

Prachi also won the individual bronze in the event, finishing the finals with a score of 181.3, after having qualified with a score of 408. Tajikistan won the silver while Korea came in third.

In the 10m air rifle junior women's competition, two Indians -- Mampi Das and Shriyanka Sadangi -- qualified for the finals but finished 4th and 7th respectively.

They, however, won the team silver medal in the event with a combined total of 1228. Iran won the gold with 1233 and Korea the bronze with 1227.8.

In the 50m free pistol for junior men, India's Sumedh Kumar continued his impressive year with a bronze medal winning performance. Sumedh had qualified for the finals along with another Indian Arjun Das who eventually finished 4th.

Bowen Zhang of China won gold and Abdul Hadi Abd Malek of Malaysia won the silver.

The Indian duo also teamed up with Suraj Bhambani to grab the team silver medal in the event. They shot a total score of 1613 to finish behind Korea who logged a score of 1620. The Thai team won the bronze in the event.

Among the seniors, Pooja Ghatkar qualified with a score of 417.9 in the women's 10m air rifle and finished 5th. She was eliminated after the 14th shot in the finals.

There was a China 1-2 in the event with world number one Yi Siling and Li Du winning gold and silver, respectively. Narjes Emamgholi of Iran won the bronze.

Pooja Ghatkar, Ayonika Paul and Elizabeth Susan Koshy came 4th in the team competition with a combined score of 1240.9, behind Korea, who won the bronze with a score of 1242.6. China won the gold, while Iran won the silver.

In the men's double trap, Mohd Asab, Ankur Mittal and Ronjon Sodhi of India finished 7th, 8th and 11th respectively and could not qualify for the final rounds.