Akhil, Aishwary help India to a 1-2 finish in men's 50m rifle 3P event at Jakarta

Jakarta, Jan 12 (IANS) India’s Akhil Sheoran and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar helped India to a 1-2 finish in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions event on Friday as India extended their dominance of the on-going Asia Olympic Qualification Rifle/Pistol to a fifth consecutive day.

The trio of Akhil, Aishwary and Swapnil Kusale also won the men’s 3P team gold taking India’s tally to a total of 10 gold, eight silver and six bronze medals, with two left to play.

All three Indian men made the finals of the individual competition comfortably with Aishwary (588) taking second, Akhil (586) third and Swapnil (584) the fourth qualifying spots, as China’s Yu Hao topped the 44-strong field with a 589.

Akhil reaped rewards of consistent shooting in the 45-shot final and was in the reckoning after every position. He went from strength to strength, breaching 153 in the first Kneeling position, 154 in Prone and then went shot 100.9 over the first 10 Standing shots to zoom to second place.

Besides Aishwary, Thailand’s Thongphaphum Vongsukdee was in real competition as the final five single shots in the Standing position ensued, and Akhil pulled out three big shots in them to wrest the gold away from them. He finished with a total of 460.2, with Aishwary 1.2 behind as the Thai settled for bronze and a coveted Paris Olympic quota place. Kazakhstan got the other with a fifth-place finish as Swapnil finished sixth.

The Indian trio also won the team gold over China with a tally of 1758, a huge 14 points adrift.

At least a couple of Indian men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol shooters have also put themselves in serious contention for the one quota place that they can win between themselves in the event.

After the first day of qualification, Adarsh Singh and Vijayveer Sidhu are in sixth and seventh spots respectively with identical scores of 288. Gurpreet Singh is further down with 281.

The top six qualify and at least three shooters above them from Korea and Japan are ineligible for quotas at this stage.