 "Shooter Gurpreet Singh secured the first gold medal of his career with his heroics at the Asian Games in Shymkent, Kazakhstan. Image credit: Instagram/gurpreetsingholy")
Gurpreet Singh led India to a 1-2 finish in the 25m Standard Pistol with Amanpreet Singh securing the silver at the 16th Asian Shooting Championship in Shymkent, Kazakhstan on Thursday.
The gold and silver from Gurpreet and Amanpreet swelled India’s medals tally to 82, including 44 golds, 20 silver and 18 bronze.
The duo also won the team gold along with Harsh Gupta with a combined score of 1709. The other gold medals of the day were won by the 50m Rifle Prone Junior team and 25m Standard Pistol Junior team.
The 37 year old Gurpreet won his first ever gold medal in an international competition and bettered the bronze he had sealed in the Asian Championships in the same event 12 years ago in Tehran.
Both Gurpreet and Amanpreet shot identical scores of 572 but Gurpreet’s 18 inner circle shots against Amanpreet’s 11 ensured the Army shooter finished on top. 25m Rapid Fire Pistol gold medalist Su Lianbofan of China won the bronze.
In the junior 25m Standard Pistol event, Suraj Sharma won silver with a score of 571-12x while Tanishq Naidu won the bronze with a score of 568-11x.
Mukesh Nelavalli, then combined with the duo to win the team gold with a combined score of 1703-39x.
The Indians could not secure any individual medals in 50m Rifle Prone in both the senior and junior categories, but the juniors managed to pick up the gold in the team event with the trio of Sami Ulah Khan, Adriyan Karmakar and Kushagra Singh Rajawat scoring a 1844.3.