Shooter Saurabh wins YOG gold, Archana in TT semis

Indian shooter Saurabh Chaudhary won the gold in the boys' 10 metre air pistol event at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) here on Wednesday.

The reigning Asian Games champion scored 244.2 points in the final. Sung Yunho of South Korea was a distant second with 236.7 points. Switzerland's Jason Solari took the bronze medal with a score of 215.6.

This was India's third gold medal at the Games. This edition has turned out to be a historic one for the Indian contingent as previously India had never won gold at the YOG.

Earlier, India's Archana Girish Kamath had to summon all her skills, energy and nerves to overcome Azerbaijans Nign Jing 13-11, 8-11, 6-11, 11-3, 6-11, 12-10, 11-7 to enter the women's singles table tennis semi-finals.

She will take on China's Yingsha Sun in the semi-finals. A win will put her into the medal round straightaway, failing which the Indian will have a shot at the play-off for the bronze medal.

After taking the extended first game, Archana was hit back by Ning Jing, a Chinese origin player turning out for Azerbaijan, who went 2-1 up to mount pressure on the Indian. But Archana was up to the task and levelled at 3-3 before dropping the next.

At this junction, the 18-year-old had to muster courage to keep her nerves calm and approach the match with composure. And she did it marvellously to first erase the deficit and in the decider, playing like a champion, she simply demolished her opponent.

--IANS

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