Asian Shooting C'ships: Akhil Sheoran is the Champion of 50m rifle 3P

Indian shooters continued their good form at the ongoing Asian Shooting Championships as Akhil Sheoran became the latest Indian shooter to clinch a gold medal beating Asian Games medalist and compatriot Aishwary Pratap Tomar in the 50m rifle 3P individual event on Friday in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Akhil accumulated 460.2 in the final to clinch the gold and topple Aishwary Tomar who managed a total of 459. This was the fourth double podium from the Indian shooting contingent from the tournament.

Swapnil Kusale, the third Indian shooter also reached the final but missed out on the podium and ended with 6th position in the final. Earlier, the three of them combined to take the team gold in the 50m 3P team event with an impressive score of 1758 including 102 bullseye shots.

Akhil and Swapnil are also the two Olympic quota winners who are getting a close fight from Aishwary, who is now consistently winning the medals to challenge them and book his spot for the Paris.

In the qualification round, the three Indians finished in the top 4 with Aishwary(588) in 2nd, Akhil(586) in 3rd, and Swapnil(584) in fourth.

Indian rapid-fire pistol shooters also started day one of qualifications with the sight on the coveted quota place to be decided tomorrow in the final.

Adarsh Singh ended day one in the 6th position with 288 closely followed by Vijayveer Sidhu, who also scored 288 at the seventh position.