Asian Games 2023: Men's rifle team wins gold, smashes world record

Indian shooters continued the medal-winning run as the men's rifle team of Aishwary Pratap Singh, Swapnil Suresh Kusale and Akhil Sheoran clinched gold in the 50m 3P event smashing the world record on Friday at the Asian Games 2023.

Earlier, the women's pistol team of Esha Singh, Palak, and Divya Thadigol clinched silver in the team event of the 10m air pistol team event.

Men's rifle team smashes World Record

The trio of Aishwary, Swapnil, and Akhil shot a total of 1769 breaking the world record score of 1761 set by the USA team in 2022. Aishwary and Swapnil also created a new Qualification Asian Games record and Asian record with their qualification score of 591.

Akhil finished fifth in the qualification with a score of 587.

However, only Aishwary and Swapnil will feature in the individual final due to the rule of a maximum of two shooters from one National Olympic Committee in the final.

This is the third world record broken by the Indian shooters and the fifth gold medal in this edition of the Asian Games.

Earlier, Aishwary along with Rudrankksh Patil and Divyansh Singh Panwar smashed the world record in men's 10m air rifle team event while Sift Kaur Samra broke the other world record in women's 50m rifle three-positions.

Women's Pistol Team clinches silver

The trio of Esha Singh, Palak, and Divya Thadigol clinched the first medal of the day for India as they shot 1731 to finish behind China and win silver in the women's 10m air pistol team event.

Esha Singh and Palak qualified for the individual finals with scores of 579 and 577 respectively. Divya finished in 10th position with a score of 575.

In the team events, winners are decided on the combined scores achieved by a country's shooters in the individual events.

With this medal, Indian shooters have so far won five gold, five silver, and five bronze medals. This is India's best-ever performance in Shooting at the Asian Games.