The talented Telangana teenager Dhanush Srikanth made his junior India debut in glorious fashion, clinching double gold by winning both the individual and the team event in the 10 m Air Rifle Men Junior competitions at the ongoing 14th Asian Shooting Championship in Qatar.
Dhanush has been suffering hearing loss right since his birth, but he never let that come in the way of his development as a shooter.
Taking aim on the penultimate day of the competition at the Lusail Shooting Complex, Dhanush first qualified for the finals with a relatively sedate score of 625.3 and then romped home with the score of 248.2 in the 8-man final, leaving silver winner Jiang Xuanle of China 2.5 points behind.
India’s Shahu Tushar Mane won bronze with the final score of 226.4, after topping the qualification round with 629.3. Hriday Hazarika, who also reached the finals finishing eighth in the qualification round with 622.5, managed an overall seventh place finish.
The trio had earlier secured the team gold with their qualification round exploits totaling 1877.1.
There was a bit of disappointment for India in the Junior Women’s Air Rifle where Shreya Agrawal, after shooting a sparkling 632 to top the qualification round by a mile, eventually had to come second to China’s Yan Jinjing.
Yan shot 251.8 as opposed to Shreya’s 250.6 in the final. Khushi Saini also won individual bronze for India in the event with the final score of 228.8.
Angad Bajwa followed up his gold winning exploits in Men’s Skeet on Monday, with silver in the Mixed team Skeet partnering Ganemat Sekhon. The pair came second best to China’s Wei Meng and Jin Di in the final. The final score read 36-33 in China’s favour.
In total, India have picked up 68 medals so far from the 14th Asian Shooting Championship, including 24 gold, 22 silver and 22 bronze with a day still remaining in the competition. China are currently leading the medals’ tally.
Other Indian medal winners on day 8 were as follows:
25 m Pistol Women Junior – The trio of Abhidnya Ashok Patil (th in final, qualifying score of 569), Niveditha Nair (6th in final, qualifying score 567) and Sneha Bharadwaj (10th in final, qualifying score 567) won team bronze with a combined score of 1703.
50 m Pistol Men– Gaurav Rana silver (score 562), Arjun Cheema bronze (score of 560). The trio of Gaurav, Arjun and Monu Tomar won team bronze with a total score of 1653.
