Ayonika shoots bronze as India add to medal count

India's Ayonika Paul wobbled a bit towards the end but still managed to bag the bronze medal while Apurvi Chandela missed out on the podium finish after a disappointing outing in the final of women's 10m air rifle event at the 8th Asian Air Gun Championship here today.
Ayonika shot 185.0 to claim the bronze, behind gold medallist Jasmine Wei Xian Ser (208.1) of Singapore and Iran's Elaheh Ahmadi, who aggregated 206.6 at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range.
Besides Ayonika's achievement, India had a gold medal and two more bronze through Aashi Rastogi and Prachi Gadkari in women's 10m air rifle youth and Shriyanka Sadangi in the junior category.

Rastogi shot 205.7 to bag the top prize, while Prachi managed 183.6 to finish third. Iran's Roya Seyedeh won the silver medal in the event with a score of 205.5.
In the junior category, Sadangi shot 185.4 to finish third on the podium behind Iran's Najmah Khedmati, who shot an impressive 208.9 to win the gold medal with a world record score and silver winner Fatemeh Karamzadeh (208.3), who is also an Iranian.
Najmah, who already has a Rio Olympics quota secured, shot 208.9 to beat country woman Karamzadeh, but the record would not stand due to the paucity of competitors in the event.

In the women's 10m air rifle event, Ayonika started on a good note and maintained her consistency throughout except for two low scores of 9.6 and 9.0 towards the end, which put paid to her hopes of winning the silver.
The Indian, who also shot a very impressive 10.9, was engaged in a tussle with Xiang but the Singaporean proved too good to be toppled, as she kept the lead till the very end to finish on top in the eight women finals.
India turned out to be a happy hunting ground for the affable Singaporean as the last time she was here for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, she had won a double gold -- both in the women's 10m air rifle as well as her pet event, the women's 50m rifle 3 positions.