Hangzhou : On his birthday, Sarabjot Singh and Divya TS continued India’s exceptional performance in shooting by clinching a silver medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team event at the Asian Games held in Hangzhou. This achievement boosted India’s total medal count in shooting to an impressive 19 at the event, comprising six gold, eight silver, and five bronze medals, marking their best-ever performance in the continental competition.
The Indian duo faced stiff competition from the world champion marksman Zhang Bowen and his compatriot Jiang Ranxin. In a thrilling shoot-off for the top podium finish, the Indian pair narrowly missed out on the gold medal, with Zhang and Jiang emerging victorious with a score of 16-14.
Sarabjot, who had previously secured the men’s 10m air pistol team gold with Arjun Singh Cheema and Shiva Narwal, appeared to be on track to secure India’s seventh gold in the mixed team event when partnering with Divya. However, a few subpar shots during the latter part of the shoot-off disrupted their momentum, despite their strong performance in the qualification round.
The finals began with India taking an early lead, reaching 11-7 until the ninth series of shots. Nevertheless, the experienced Chinese shooters staged a comeback, equalizing at 11-all and 14-all before Ranxin sealed the victory with an outstanding 10.7 and Bowen with 10.3. Unfortunately, Sarabjot shot 10.5, while Divya had a less impressive 9.9 on the 15th shot, ultimately determining the outcome.
In the qualification round, Sarabjot scored 291, and Divya secured 286, resulting in a combined score of 577, which placed them at the top of the rankings ahead of China (576).
In the mixed team 10m air pistol event, the top-six teams in qualification advanced to the medal round. However, only the teams ranked first and second engaged in a shoot-off for the gold medal, while the teams placed third to sixth contended for two bronze medals.
