Teen shooting sensation Saurabh Chaudhary claims gold on debut

TIL Desk Sports/ 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, in Palembang, on Tuesday.

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.