Rudrankksh Patil-Mehuli Ghosh pair clinch India's fifth gold at Asian Olympic Qualifiers

Jakarta: The Indian pair of Rudrankksh Patil and Mehuli Ghosh gave the country its fifth gold medal at the Asia Olympic Qualifiers, winning the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event in Jakarta on Tuesday. The Indian pair triumphed after prevailing over China’s Shen Yufan and Zhu Mingshuai 16-10 in the final. In the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event, however, India settled for the silver medal with the duo of Arjun Cheema and Rhythm Sangwan finishing second behind Vietnam’s Thu Vinh Trinh and Quang Huy Pham in the battle for the top prize. The team of Rhythm and Arjun topped the qualification round with a total score of 582, finishing ahead of the second-placed combo (580) from Vietnam, but they could not get the better of their opponents when it mattered the most. Earlier in the day, the pair of Rudrankksh and Mehuli was second in the qualification, shooting a total score of 631.3 to finish behind Yufan and Mingshuai, who aggregated 632.3. On Monday, young Indian shooters Varun Tomar and Esha Singh secured two Olympic quota places for the country with gold medals in the men’s and women’s 10m Air Pistol events of the Qualifiers. The duo’s qualification took the total number of Indian shooters bound for Paris to 15, equalling the highest-ever tally that was achieved in the Tokyo Games.