Asian Games: Shooters Esha Singh, Naruka win silver medals

Esha Singh
Esha Singh. Photo: PTI/Shailendra Bhojak

Hangzhou: Teenaged Indian shooter Esha Singh claimed a silver medal in the women's individual 25m pistol event at the Asian Games even as Manu Bhaker failed to secure a podium finish here on Wednesday.

The 18-year-old Esha shot 34 to settle for the second place, while China's Rui Liu won the gold medal with a Games record score of 38. Jiin Yang ended with the bronze medal after shooting 29.

On her way to gold, Rui Liu broke the record held by India's Rahi Sarnobat (34).

Youth Olympics champion Manu, who topped the qualification with a total score of 590, had to be content with a fifth-place finish and shot 21 in the eight-women final at the Hangzhou Shooting Range Hall.

In the gold medal contest, Esha missed three out of her five shots, while the Chinese missed the target only once to emerge victorious.

This is India's 10th medal in shooting, bettering the 2018 edition of nine medals in total.

Meanwhile, there was an unusual long delay in the final because of a missing shot of the Korean shooter, leaving the judges to inspect the target and the back-up target to see if the shooter actually missed the target or failed to register.

Naruka on song

India's Anant Jeet Singh Naruka claimed the silver medal in men's skeet event, adding to the team gold he won alongside Angad Vir Singh Bajwa and Gurjoat Khangura.

Naruka performed very well and looked on course to win the gold medal, having not missed a shot until the business end of the final.

Naruka finished his last round with 10/10 to finish his event with an impressive 58/60 but it was still not good enough for gold as Kuwait's Abdullah Alrashidi equalled the world record with a perfect 60/60 to finish on top of the podium.

Nasser Al-Attiya of Qatar bagged the bronze with 46.

Earlier in the day, the trio of Naruka, Bajwa and Khangura shot a total of 355 to win the team bronze.

Hosts China won the gold medal while Qatar claimed the silver.

The Indian women's team, however, crashed out of the shotgun skeet event by finishing in the fourth position behind Kazakhstan, China and Thailand. 

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