Did Ankur Mittal Set a New Continental Record at the Asian Shooting Championship?

New Delhi, Aug 29 (NationPress) Former world No. 1 and 2018 Changwon World Champion Ankur Mittal accomplished a remarkable feat by establishing a new record at the Asian Championship while securing a gold medal in the Double Trap event during the 16th Asian Shooting Championship held in Shymkent, Kazakhstan, on Friday.

This victory has propelled India's medal count to an impressive total of 103, marking their best performance ever in the Asian Championship, with 52 gold, 26 silver, and 25 bronze medals. Additionally, Ankur Mittal teamed up with Bhanu Pratap Singh and Harshvardhan Kaviya to earn a team bronze in the Double Trap Team event.

Leading the competition with a total of 107 hits, Ankur maintained his lead throughout the four rounds, scoring 26, 28, 26, and 27 respectively. Local competitor Artyom Chikulayev from Kazakhstan secured the silver with 98 hits, while Ahmad Alaffasi from Kuwait took bronze after a shoot-off with 96 and +2.

In the junior Double Trap category, Hatim Khan Mohammed achieved silver with 89 hits, and Manavrajsinh Chudasama earned bronze with 87. Together with Vinay Pratap Singh Chandrawat (81), they won the team gold.

India dominated the Women’s Double Trap category, with Anushka Singh Bhati (93), Rajkuwar Pranil Ingle (89), and Yeshaya Hafiz Contractor (87) taking home the gold, silver, and bronze medals, respectively. They also clinched the team gold. Additionally, in the Women’s Junior category, Avani Alankar Koli won bronze with 77 hits and contributed to the team silver with Krishika Joshi and Smita Sawant, who each scored 61 hits.

Manini Kaushik scored 617.8 to win the bronze medal in the 50m Rifle Prone Women’s event. Alongside Surabhi Bhardwaj (614.4) and Vidarsa K. Vinod (613.8), they secured the team silver in this event. In the junior category, Prachi Gaikwad finished second with 616.6 to take the silver medal. She also teamed up with Anushka Thokur (607.6) and Tejal Nathawat (599.2) to win the team bronze in the 50m Rifle Prone Junior Women’s category.

In the 25m Centre Fire Pistol Men’s event, Rajkanwar Singh scored 289 in the precision round and 294 in the rapid round, finishing with a total of 583-22x to win gold. He also partnered with Gurpreet Singh (579-17x) and Ankur Goel (571-18x) to secure team gold.

The podium in the 25m Pistol Men Junior event was completely swept by Suraj Sharma (588-24x), Abhinav Choudhary (582-20x), and Mukesh Nelavalli (576-21x), winning gold, silver, and bronze, respectively. They also combined to win the team gold.

With a final haul of 103 medals (52 gold, 26 silver, and 25 bronze), India recorded its most successful campaign in the history of the Asian Shooting Championship, finishing first and surpassing their previous record from the 15th Asian Championships in Changwon, South Korea, by 39 medals. The host nation Kazakhstan finished second, while China secured third place in the medal tally of the 16th Asian Shooting Championship.