Asian Games: Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar Clinches Bronze Men's 10m Air Rifle Individual Event

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar won the individual bronze in the men’s 10m Air Rifle event of the ongoing Asian Games in Hangzhou (China) which is India’s fourth medal in shooting so far.

Aishwary took home the medal following a keen duel with compatriot Rudrankksh Patil, who finished fourth.

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India would be slightly disappointed at missing a gold, or a sliver, in the individual category following the red-hot form shown by both Tomar and Rudrankksh in the qualification round.

However, both the Indians could not recreate the magic of the qualification round in the eight-shooter finals with Tomar, after a dogged battle with Rudrankksh, edging out the teenage shooter to win bronze in shoot-off for third place, scoring 228.8.

Tomar was in contention for silver with Park Hajun after that but a rank bad final shot of 9.8 eliminated him, even as the South Korean went on to take the second spot behind China’s Sheng Lihao, who won gold with a world record score of 253.3.

Rudrankksh and Tomar had made it to the eight-shooter finals following their superb display in the qualification round, while Divyansh missed out thanks to an Asian Games rule that allows only two marksmen from a country to enter the finals.

Rudrankksh entered the finals placed third, while Aishwary was fifth after the qualification round. Divyansh was placed eighth and, had it been a World Cup or a World Championship, or any other continental shooting competition, all three Indians would have been in the eight-shooter final.

However, Divyansh had to make way for Kazakhsran’s Islam Satpayev, who was placed ninth but still qualified for the finals because of the rule.

Sheng Lihao of China topped the qualification round with a score of 634.5, a qualification Asian Games record, while South Korea’s Park Hajun was second at 632.8.

Rudrankksh, at 632.5 was third entering the finals, while Aishwary was fifth at 631.6 among the qualifiers.

Earlier, a confident Indian 10m air rifle team led by teenage world champion Rudrankksh gave the country its first gold medal at the Asian Games, securing the top place on the podium with a world record score on Monday.