ISSF Junior World Championships: Abhinav Shaw-Gautami Bhanot pair clinch gold in 10m air rifle mixed team

New Delhi: The pair of Abhinav Shaw and Gautami Bhanot won the 10m air rifle mixed team gold on day two of the ISSF World Championship Juniors in Changwon, Korea. The Indian pair defeated the French combination of Oceanne Muller and Romain Aufrere 17-13 in the gold-medal match. This was India’s third gold of the competition, which took the country to second position in the medals tally, with a silver and two bronze medals to boot. China leads the tally with the same number of gold and bronze as India, but with an additional silver to show for their efforts. India also bagged a bronze in the second medal event of the day, the 10m air pistol mixed team event, when Abhinav Choudhury and Sainyam, who had won gold in the air pistol women’s individual competition on Sunday, got the better of Korea’s Kim Juri and Kim Kanghyun 17-11, in the bronze-medal match. Abhinav and Gautami had earlier shot 627.4 in the qualification to finish second amongst 35 teams to qualify for the gold medal match-up. Oceanne and Romain had topped the qualification with 632.4, but the Indian pair reversed the order in the final with some gritty shooting. They were down 0-4 initially, but showed tremendous resolve to pull through in the end. The pair of Abhinav Choudhary and Sainyam shot a combined 574 in qualification to finish fourth. That gave them a shot at bronze, where they duly obliged. Day three has four finals lined up, namely the men’s and women’s 10m air rifle finals and the men’s and women’s skeet final.