Rudrankksh, Mehuli win mixed team air Rifle gold in Jakarta

Jakarta, Jan 9 (IANS)  Rudrankksh Patil and Mehuli Ghosh emerged victorious in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team competition, with a 16-10 win in the gold medal match over the Chinese pairing of Shen Yufan and Zhu Mingshuai at Asian Olympic Qualification Rifle/Pistol.

The squad then topped it up with a gold and bronze in the junior mixed team air rifle and a silver in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team, where Rhythm Sangwan and Arjun Cheema, went down fighting 11-17 in the gold medal match to Vietnam’s Trinh Thu Vinh and Pham Quang Huy.

India picked up two more golds and a silver and bronze each, on competition day two to maintain their position at the top of the medal standings with six gold, two silver and two bronze, for a total of 10 medals.

Rudrankksh and Mehuli did more than enough in qualification, finishing behind Shen and Zhu by a point, thereby drawing them yet again in the title-decider. The Indians shot a combined 631.3 to finish second in the 30-team field. A second Indian pair of Elavenil Valarivan and Arjun Babuta finished sixth overall with a score of 629.0.

In the final, the initial exchanges were even, before Rudrankksh and Mehuli expertly pulled away, winning four of the last six series of single shots to seal the title. Both had shots of 10.9 at different times during that run and were the first to reach 16 points with plenty to spare.

In the mixed team pistol, the first series was tied and the two pairs split points. A 10.9 by Pham in the next gave Vietnam an early lead. They would go on to win the next three as well to open up a 9-1 gap in the race to 16.

The Indian pair came back to win the sixth series and tie the seventh and eighth but Trinh and Pham won the ninth and 10th to go 15-5 ahead.

Rhythm and Arjun then fought back admirably to win the next three and close the gap at 11-15, but it was not going to be as they lost the 14th series narrowly to go down 11-17.

India also won the junior event in the mixed team air rifle discipline when Isha Anil Taksale and Ummamahesh Maddineni defeated yet another Chinese pairing of Chu Ziqing and Pan Bowen 17-11 in the gold-medal match-up.

In the same event, the pair of Abhinav Shaw and Anvii Rathod defeated local favourites Masayyu Putri Fadillah and Paskalis Steven Farrel Saverio 16-10 to claim bronze.

On day one, Varun Tomar and Esha Singh had begun the gold rush for India with wins in the men’s and women’s 10m air pistol, which also came with Paris Olympic quota places.

--IANS

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