The unlikely pair of Suruchi Singh and Kamaljeet overcame India's underwhelming run in the 10 air pistol events at Asian Games with a gold medal in the mixed team event. Initially, Kedarling Balakrishna Uchaganve was supposed to compete alongside Suruchi. But, Kamaljeet finished ninth in the men's qualification event and narrowly missed out on the final while Kdearling finished 35th. A last-minute change was made and it worked India's favour, helping them secure country's second gold medal at the Games.
Suruchi and Kamaljeet shot a total of 484.6 in the final. South Korea's Suhyeon Hong and Gaeun Choo finished second with 478 points and won the silver whereas Iran bagged bronze with a score of 415.8.
ALSO READ: India win silver in mixed 4x400 relay, lose out on gold as Bahrain set Games Record
Before Suruchi and Kamaljeet, India’s only gold medal was won by the Harmanpreet Kaur-led women’s team with a win over Sri Lanka in the final.
ALSO READ: Anantjeet, Parinaaz bag bronze in skeet mixed team despite levelling scores with Korea, here's why!
Kamaljeet, Suruchi make it count
Earlier, Kamaljeet and Suruchi had topped the qualification round. In the opening series, they got 196 points. At the end of second series, they had 391 points. They bagged 196 points again, taking their score to 587 with consistent performances.
Kamaljeet, Suruchi made India's last chance of getting a medal in the 10m air pistol events count. Earlier in the competition, Kamljeet finished ninth in the individual qualification round. Suruchi was way behind as she was placed 26th in her individual round.
"In my mind, it was pure enjoyment. It wasn't like we got overly tense thinking, "We have to do this at all costs." We knew we would secure a medal. When we reached the final, we were discussing among ourselves that we would comfortably get a medal. We didn't know for sure that it would be gold, but gold came, and that too with an Asian Games record—so that’s a really great thing," Kamaljeet said after the gold medal as quoted by ANI.
Silver for 3P rifle team
Later in the day, the trio of Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Rudrankksh Patil and Niraj Kumar bagged a silver medal in men's 50m rifle 3 positions team. Aishwary, Rudrankksh and Niraj combined to score 1762 for a silver medal. China secured the gold with 1766 points whereas Korea scored 1751 to bag bronze.
Tomar was the top-scorer among the three with 589 points closely followed by Niraj with 588 points. They qualified for the individual finals event as well. Rudrankksh missed out as only two shooters from a country could feature in the final. But, Aishwary and Niraj finished fifth and eighth respectively, missing out on a medal.
While India have a few medals confirmed, the current tally stands at 19 with two gold, eight silver and nine bronze medals.