Manu,Saurabh clinches gold in Asian Airgun C’ship

Young pistol shooters Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary on Friday clinched a gold medal each, their second in the competition, as India continued their domination at the 12th Asian Airgun Championships in Taoyuan, Chinese Taipei.

Manu won the women's 10m Air Pistol on day three of competitions while Saurabh bagged a team gold in the men's event.

The women's pistol team also won a bronze to further bolster India's tally to five gold, three silver and one bronze medals with half the competition still to go.

Manu shot 575 out of 600 to qualify in second place and then was involved in a pitched battle with Shing Ho Ching of Hong Kong for most parts of the 24-shot final, before finishing stronger in the end stages. She shot a score of 239 against Shing's 237.9 while UAE's Wafa Alali bagged the bronze.

Saurabh topped with 587, while Ravinder was fourth to qualify with 578. Abhishek in fact was the lowest ranked Indian among the eight qualifiers, fifth with 577, but was the only one to land a medal.

The trio though picked up the team gold over the Koreans with a total of 1742, a clear 12 points ahead of their nearest rival.