Indian juniors held sway at the 15th Asian Shooting Championship in Changwon on Friday with skeet shooters showing the way in Korea shooting hub.
Harmehar Singh Lally and Bhavtegh Singh Gill made it 1-2 in the junior men final, which also saw Abhay Singh Sekhon qualify among the six shooters.
Thursday gold was eighteen-year-old Harmehar first in an international competition, his previous best being silver in the mixed team at this venue earlier in the year, followed by bronze in mixed team at the Junior World Cup in Suhl this calendar year.
Harmehar topped with a score of 52, two points better than Bhavtegh. China Yunxuan Wu settled for bronze with 42. Abhay was fourth with a score of 34.
In qualification too, Harmehar was the top name with a total of 117. Abhay (114), Bhavtegh (113) too advanced to the final but Ritu Raj Bundela (112) missed out.
The junior women skeet shooters put up a spirited show as well with Raiza Dhillon claiming silver with a score of 47, two points behind Kazakhstan Diana Sabekova. The bronze went to China Jiang Chaoyu (39), while India Muffaddal Zahra Deesawala (11) finished sixth.
19-year-old Raiza, has some impressive results to her name, starting with gold in the women team event at the 2021 Lima World Championship and team bronze at the 2023 Changwon World Championship.
Muffaddal would be disappointed as she was placed fourth with a score of 110 in qualification, which was topped by Raiza (116). The other Indian in the fray, Sanjana Sood (106) finished seventh.
Bronze came India way in junior men’s 10m air rifle with Abhinav Shaw shooting 227.6. Just 15, Abhinav has shown a lot of promise with gold in mixed team events at this year’s Changwon Junior World Championship and Suhl Junior World Cup.
Gold and silver in the event went to the Chinese duo of Huang Liwanlin (250.7) and Ye Yishun (249.4). Umamahesh Maddineni (206.9) and Pratham Bhadana (141.3), the other Indians in the final, finished fourth and seventh respectively.
In qualification, Umamahesh (628.5) was the best Indian at second, followed by Abhinav (625.6) and Pratham (625.1) at seventh and ninth. China Yishun topped with a score of 631.
Gautami Bhanot, 17, went a step further than Abhinav by claiming silver in junior women’s 10m air rifle with a score of 251.3. A gold medallist at this year’s Changwon Junior World Championship and Suhl Junior World Cup in the mixed team events, Gautami led the Indian charge in the final, which also featured Sonam Uttam Maskar (4th, 208.2) and Jasmeen Kaur (7th, 144.5).
The gold went to Jiao Ruoxuan of China with a score of 262.4 (630.2) and bronze to her teammate Fan Xinyi with 229 (633.2).
In qualification, Uttam was the top Indian at second with a score of 632.6, followed by Gautami at 631.9. Jasmeen shot 627.1 to make the cut for the final on eighth place.
China leads the medal tally with 10 gold, 7 silver and 7 bronze while India is next with 6 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze.