World Deaf Shooting C'ships: Dhanush shatters WR, India sweeps podium

Dhanush Srikanth shattered the world record in both qualification and final to win the men’s air rifle gold in style at the second World Deaf shooting championship in Hannover, Germany, on Sunday.

It was a clean sweep of medals by Indian shooters as Shourya Saini and Mohamed Vania followed Dhanush to bag the silver and bronze medals respectively. The trio had finished in that order in qualification as well.

Dhanush shot a double deaf-shooting world record in a single day, first with a 632.7 to top the qualification round and then a 251.7 in the final to leave his compatriot Sourya (249.9) well behind in second. Mohammed Murtaza had earlier bowed out with a bronze having shot 226.2.

In women’s air rifle, Mira Biatovszki of Hungary shot a world record 247.8 to beat the Indian shooters Mahit Sandhu and Natasha Joshi to the gold. Mahit who won the silver had shot a world record 627.7 in qualification.

Priyesha Deshmukh shot the second-best qualification score of 623.3 but placed eighth in the final, while Natasha Joshi did well to climb to the bronze medal.

India had earlier won the women’s air pistol gold through Anuya Prasad, apart from clinching the silver and bronze medals in men’s air pistol through Abhinav Deshwal and Shubham Vashist.

The World Championships will end on September 7.

Indian shooters, competing in the air rifle and air pistol disciplines, will aim for more medals. The Indian squad also included an interpreter and coaches Preeti Sharma (Pistol) and Sanjeev Rajput (Rifle).