Indian shooters add two gold as Kazakhstan’s Sofiya Shulzhenko sets 3P world record

New Delhi: Kazakhstan’s Sofiya Shulzhenko shattered the world record in the women’s 50m rifle three positions (3P) event while clinching gold at the Asian Championship Rifle/Pistol. Her triumph came on a productive seventh day for India as the hosts added two more gold medals at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range in the national capital.

Sofiya posted a brilliant 358.2 in the 35-shot final, finishing four points ahead of India’s Aakriti Dahiya, who took silver. India’s Anjum Moudgil, a world championship medalist, secured the bronze with a score of 340.4. In addition to the world record, Sofiya’s performance also established new world junior, Asian, and Asian junior records.

Later in the junior women’s 3P final, Prachi Gaikwad emerged triumphant with a score of 353.3. Tomiris Amanova, a 14-year-old Kazakh shooter, won silver with 351.4 while Anushka Thokur bagged another bronze for the hosts with an effort which ended after the 34th shot at 341.1.

Prachi, Anushka and Hazel also won the team gold in the event with a tally of 1748, seven clear of team Kazakhstan. In the senior women’s 3P, the Kazakh’s turned the tables on the Indians by four points, to win gold with a combined score of 1760.

Paris Olympian and bronze medalist in the Buenos Aires world cup last year, Arina Malinovskaya topped the women’s 3P qualification field with a score of 588 after 20 shots each in the Kneeling, Prone and Standing positions. Anjum shot 587 to take second spot while Ashi Chouksey was fourth with 586. Aakriti took the sixth qualifying spot with a total of 583 while the winner Shulzhenko shot 587 to take third spot behind Anjum.

In the final, the three Indians were on top after the first Kneeling position with Aakriti in the lead, but Shulzhenko had a strong display in the second Prone position to rise up to second. Thereafter, she was the only shooter to log above 50 points in both the five-shot series of the Standing position, to take a decisive lead, which kept stretching till the end as her challengers faded out.

Also on the day, Adarsh Singh of India took pole position after the first precision round in the 25m rapid-fire pistol men’s competition, with a score of 291/300. Favourite Anish Bhanwala shot 287 to remain in contention for a finals berth while Neeraj Kumar’s 277, meant that he would have to work hard on Wednesday (Feb 11) to make the finals cut, which will follow the second rapid-fire round.

India’s medal tally currently stands at 39 gold, 15 silver and 12 bronze medals and they comfortably head the standings.

Tags : Sofiya Shulzhenko, Asian Championship, Rifle, Pistol, Anushka Thokur