Palembang, Aug 21 : Debutant teenager Saurabh Chaudhary clinched India’s first shooting gold of the 18th Asian Games, fetching the top honours in the men’s 10m air pistol event here today.
The 16-year-old Chaudhary, who topped the qualifying round, shot a Games record score of 240.7 to pip Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsuda (239.7) in an exciting final to add a gold to India’s shooting tally of two silver and a bronze this Asiad.
Hobby shooter Abhishek Verma, also making his Asian Games debut at 29, settled for the bronze medal in the same event with a score of 219.3.
In second position for most of the final, Chaudhary grabbed the lead after Matsuda fired 8.9 in his penultimate shot. The Indian went ahead with a 10.2 off his second-last shot and held the nerve to stay ahead.(P.T.I)
