World Deaf Shooting C’ship: Shourya Saini sets record to win gold in 50m Rifle 3 Positions
New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) Shourya Saini shot a World Deaf Championship record of 452.4 to secure the gold medal in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) men’s event on Day Six of the 2nd World Deaf Shooting Championship 2024, being held at Hanover, Germany. Chetan Hanmant Sapkal clinched bronze in the men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (RFP) to take India’s medal tally to 17 medals — five gold, seven silver, and five bronze — in the championship. Shourya had earlier qualified for the final with a qualification score of 580. The other Indian in the fray, Kushagra Singh, finished fourth in the final. This is Shourya’s second medal in the championship after his silver in the men’s 10m Air Rifle individual event earlier. Chetan shot 534 in the men’s RFP to win the bronze behind the Ukrainian duo of Serhii Ohorodnyk and Oleksandr Kolodii, who won gold and silver respectively. Meanwhile, on Thursday, Mahit Sandhu clinched the gold medal in the Women’s 50m Rifle Prone event, while Abhinav Deshwal secured silver in the Men’s 25m Pistol on Day 5, as India continued to impress at the 2nd World Deaf Shooting Championship 2024. This was Mahit’s second gold and third medal at the Deaf Shooting World Championships after she had won the gold in the Mixed 10m Air Rifle along with Dhanush Srikanth and silver in the 10m Air Rifle Women’s Individual event. She scored 247.4 in the final, 2.2 more than Hungary’s Mira Biatovszki. She qualified for the final after topping qualification with 617.8. The other Indian shooter, Natasha Joshi finished seventh in the finals. Abhinav Deshwal was edged out by Ukraine’s Oleksandr Kolodii in the final series by a solitary point. Both shooters were tied on 37 after the ninth series and in the tenth series Oleksandr shot a perfect five while Abhinav could only manage four to settle for silver. —
