Youth Olympic Games 2018: 16-year-old Saurabh Chaudhary shoots gold in 10m air pistol

Indian shooter Saurabh Chaudhary on Wednesday clinched India's third Youth Olympics gold medal at Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

Saurabh scored 244.2 points to grab the yellow metal in the 10m Air Pistol Men's final. South Korea's Sung Yunho (236.7) and Switzerland's Jason Solari (215.6) won the silver and bronze medals respectively.

The 16-year-old shooter got off to a solid start in the final, shooting 101.6 to lead Solari (98.7)  by 2.9 points after the first stage. 

In the first two rounds of elimination, Saurabh (142.4) shot perfect 10's (10.4, 10.1, 10.3, 10.0) to lead Solari by 4.9 points. He continued to extend his lead throughout the elimination round and sealed the gold medal with scores of 10.0, 10.1, 10.7 and 10.0 (244.2) in his last four shots. 

 

It’s a GOLD!

What a tremendous performance by our 16yr old #Shooting star #TOPSAthlete #SaurabhChaudhary as he won 10m Air Pistol event at @BuenosAires2018 with a score of 244.2 7.5 pts ahead of his nearest rival.
This young champ is having a brilliant yr! #YouthOlympics pic.twitter.com/xdToS8TZU7 — SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) October 10, 2018

 

 

It’s a GOLD!

What a tremendous performance by our 16yr old #Shooting star #TOPSAthlete #SaurabhChaudhary as he won 10m Air Pistol event at @BuenosAires2018 with a score of 244.2 7.5 pts ahead of his nearest rival.
This young champ is having a brilliant yr!#YouthOlympics pic.twitter.com/xdToS8TZU7

— SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) October 10, 2018

 

Saurabh had earlier won gold at the Asian Games, Junior World Cup and ISSF Junior World Championships. He also holds the junior world record of 245.5 points, which he achieved at the world championships.  

It was India's sixth medal at the Youth Olympics and fourth from the shooting discipline. Manu Bhaker had bagged gold in Women's 10m Air Pistol while Sahu Tushar Mane and Mehuli Ghosh won silver in the Men's and Women's 10m Air Rifle respectively. 

(With Agency inputs)