Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Sift Kaur Samra won the gold medal in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions individual as well as the team event at the Asian Shooting Championships in Kazakhstan on August 26. She scored 459.2 to take the yellow medal with Yujie Yang of China (458.8) and Japan’s Misaki Nobata (448.2) taking silver and gold respectively. Another Indian in the eight-woman final, Ashi Chouksey, finished seventh with a score of 402.8.
Sift and Ashi were placed second and fifth, respectively, in the qualification round. But, the duo entered the final as first and fourth, as another Indian, Shriyanka Sadandi, who had topped the qualification round, was competing in the ‘Ranking Points Only’ (RPO) category. Sift and Ashi also combined with Anjum Moudgil to clinch the gold in the 50m rifle 3 positions team event. Sift shot 589 while Ashi and Anjum scored 586 and 578 respectively for the aggregated score of 1753 points to finish ahead of Japan (1750) and South Korea (1745), which took the silver and bronze medals, respectively.
Earlier on August 25, Neeru Dhanda helped India close out the day with two more gold medals to its tally. She won the individual women’s trap title after combining with Aashima Ahlawat and Preeti Rajak to secure the team shooting gold. Earlier, Bhowneesh Mendiratta had to settle for a silver medal in the men’s trap event, as his score of 45 in the final fell two short of China’s Qi Ying. Another Chinese shooter, Chen Pengyu, won the bronze.
