Asian Airgun C'ship: Manu, Saurabh bag gold

India had a great start to the 12th Asian Airgun Championship in Taoyuan, Taipei as young shooters Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary won gold in the 10 metre Air Pistol mixed team event while, Esha Singh and Vijayveer Sidhu also bagged the yellow metal in junior category.

Manu and Saurabh also smashed the qualification world record in the process. The Indian pair shot a combined score of 784 in the qualification round, breaking the record set by Russians Vitalina Batsarashkina and Artem Chernousov.

Later, in the five-team final, the Indians finished first with a score of 484.8, Hwang Seongeun and Kim Mose of Korea won silver with a score of 481.1 while Wu Chia Ying and Kou Kuan-Ting had to settle for bronze for the host country with a score of 413.3.

Meanwhile, another Indian team comprising Anuradha and Abhishek Verma also reached the seniors final but finished fourth with a score of 372.1.

On the other hand, Esha and Vijayveer scored 478.5 in the juniors final too, bag gold.

--IANS

kk/in