Chaudhary wins gold in 10m air pistol; fifth Indian shooter to win yellow medal at Asiad; Verma nets bronze
In run-up to the 2018 Asian Games, 16-year-old teenage prodigy Saurabh Chaudhary was picked to train with senior shooters with an eye on Youth Olympics to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, later in October.
Having been junior world No. 4 in and winning the ISSF Junior World Cup at Suhl, Germany, earlier by setting new world record was enough for everyone to believe in his capabilities.
Hailing from family of farmers in Kalina village near Meerut in western Uttar Pradesh, class XI student Saurabh took up shooting only three years ago in 2015 and was participating in his first big senior international event. After initially topping the qualifying round on Tuesday, Saurabh went on to stun the 2010 World Champion and Japanese shooter Tomoyuki Matsuda in the 24 shot final to secure the yellow metal in his first major 10m air pistol event finals in Palembang.
Saurabh only managed to grab lead in his penultimate shot firing 10.2 to Matsuda 8.9, after maintaining the second place for most of the final. Chaudhary also set a Games record in the process. In the most crucial shot, he held on to his nerves with a 10.4 compared to Japanese’s 10.3 to climb on top of the podium.
In the field studded with multiple world and Olympic champions, Saurabh became only the 5th Indian shooter to claim a gold in the Asian Games history. Another Indian making his international debut, 29-year-old Abhishek Verma, shot 219.3 to secure bronze. Saurabh also set a Games record during his dream run.
Interestingly, Saurabh and Abhishek were chosen ahead of known names like Jitu Rai and Om Mitharval after defeating them at the national selection trials.
Full of promise
Apart from helping his father in farming, Saurabh learnt the tricks of the trade at Amit Sheoran’s academy at Benoli near Baghpat, 53 kms from Meerut.
Even after creating a junior World record at the 10th Asia Youth Olympic Games qualification event in December 2017 on his way to gold, not many thought that this teenager would emulate the feat achieved at this level as that of Randhir Singh, Jaspal Rana, Ronjon Sodhi and Jitu Rai.
Coached by Rana, Saurabh shot off to the top spot ahead of not just his own countryman Abhishek but also four-time Olympic gold medallist Jin Jong-oh of South Korea who is without doubt the most successful individual shooter in recent Olympic history. With South Korean becoming the fourth contender to be eliminated in the final round, the fight for the top three spots were fought more or less between the two Indians and the Japanese.
And Saurabh showed exemplary composure to make the decisive difference in last two shots scoring a total of 240.7 to pip Matsuda’s 239.7 on his way to new Games record.
Also, Saurabh became the first Indian to win gold in the 10m air pistol event at the Asian Games. The only other Indian to medal in this event is Vijay Kumar, who won bronze at the 2010 edition in Guangzhou, China.
Did You Know?
- At 16 years and 101 days, Saurabh Chaudhary (IND) is the youngest gold medallist in shooting at the Asian Games since Thanyalak Chotphibunsin (THA) won gold in the women’s team event in 2006 at 16 years and 14 days.
- Abhishek Verma (IND) takes bronze. India wins two medals in a specific shooting event at an Asian Games for the first time.
N Zone
3Number of Indian athletes, including Sanjeev Rajput, from India to claim a shooting medal at four different Asian Games, after Mansher Singh and Manavjit Singh Sandhu. RAJPUT took bronze in 2006, silver in 2010 and bronze in 2014, all in team events.
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