Royal Jadhav wins men’s air rifle gold

New Delhi

India’s Kiran Ankush Jadhav continued his excellent form by winning the 10m air rifle gold at the Kumar Surendra Singh Memorial Shooting Championship on Saturday. He is already the national champion in the 3-Positions rifle event and is also part of India’s squad for the upcoming Munich World Cup.

Jadhav scored 252.4 in the 24-shot final to beat Army shooters Vivek Sharma and Vishal Singh at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range. Vivek claimed the silver medal, finishing just 1.4 points behind Jadhav. Vishal Singh had to settle for bronze after losing a shoot-off against Vivek. Both were tied at 230.1 after 22 shots.

In the junior men’s final, Parth Rakesh Mane took gold in dramatic fashion. He beat Uma Mahesh Maddineni by a razor-thin margin of 0.1 in the final shot. Uma led by 0.3 going into the last shot, but Parth’s strong finish gave him the title. Karnataka’s Naraen Suresh secured the bronze medal.

Jadhav added a second title to his name by winning the youth men’s air rifle gold with a score of 252.2. He edged past Parth again, this time by 0.5 points. Guruu Sabari of Tamil Nadu won the bronze with 230.3 points.

With four gold medals so far in the tournament, Jadhav is proving to be India’s top rifle shooter of the moment.