India shoot to maiden gold at Asian Games 2023, smash world record in 10m Air Rifle Men's Team event

The trio of Divyansh Singh Panwar, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Rudrankksh Patil created history for India

Indian shooters Divyansh Singh Panwar, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Rudrankksh Patil created history as the trio smashed a world record in men's 10m Air Rifle team event to win the country's first gold medal at the Asian Games 2023. With an overall point tally of 1893.7, India shattered China's feat of 1893.3 points accomplished at the World Championships in Baku earlier this year.

Asian Games: Divyansh Singh Panwar, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, and Rudrankksh Patil made history.(PTI)

In the process, Rudrankksh (632.5) secured the third spot, while Aishwary (631.6) claimed the fifth position, and thus qualifying for the men's 10m air rifle individual final, scheduled for later today. Notably, all three Indian competitors achieved positions within the top eight, with Divyansh securing the final spot. However, Divyansh will not advance to the final due to regulations permitting only two shooters from a single country. Hence, Patil and Tomar, having achieved a higher ranking, will return to the competition at 9 AM.

The Indian team were initially placed fourth, but as the nature of shooting goes, the rankings fluctuate wildly with shooters completing their 10-shot series. Rudrankksh and Tomar were hanging in the bottom-half of the top ten, with Divyansh was 17th. But their collective effort was enough to lift India to third in the team rankings, raising the possibility of a medal.

After almost an hour, Aishwary rose to fourth, having fired 51 shots with an impressive average of 10.520. Rudrankksh shared the same average of 10.520, taking him to 11th in the standings with 46 shots. Divyansh too made an upward move to stand 11th with an average of 10.485 after 45 shots. With all three improving their rankings drastically ahead of the final series, India were primed to take gold.

Hence, the Indian team, comprising of world champion Rudrankksh, Olympian Divyansh and Aishwary aggregated 1893.7 in the qualification round to better the world record of 1893.3 set by the Chinese set less than a month back. Rudrankksh shot 632.5, Tomar 631.6 and Panwar 629.6 to aggregate the world record score. South Korea clinched the silver with an aggregate of 1890.1, while China won the bronze with a score of 1888.2.

This is India's third medal in shooting at the 19th edition of the Asian Games after the women's 10m air rifle team, comprising Ashi Chouksey, Mehuli Ghosh, Ramita bagged the silver medal while Ramita finished third in women's 10m air rifle. Overall, India have clinched seven medals - one gold and three apiece of silver and bronze. Four of those medal came in rowing.