New Delhi, Dec 8 (PTI) India started with a bang at the10th Asian Airgun Shooting Championships, collecting fivemedals on the event's opening day but Olympic bronze-medallistGagan Narang missed out on an individual podium finish in WakoCity, Japan.
Ravi Kumar won an individual bronze in the men's 10m airrifle while Arjun Babuta won individual an silver in thecorresponding junior men's event. India also bagged three teamsilver medals in each of the three air rifle events.
India had seven individual finalists across the threeevents held today.
This will be the same range where the shootingcompetitions for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be hosted.
Deepak Kumar led the Indian charge into the finals of theMen's 10m air rifle, shooting 627.5 after the regulation 60shots, to qualify fourth out of eight finalists.
Ravi Kumar, with 624.6 finished sixth, while formerOlympic-Bronze medalist Gagan Narang, making a return into theevent after a break, shot 624.5 to qualify in seventh place.
The top three slots went to the Chinese with Cao Yifeirecording the highest score of 629.2.
In the finals, Ravi started strong along with ChineseSong Buhan, while Deepak, after an initial flurry, faded awayto finish fifth on a score of 185.
From the 10th shot onwards of the 24-shot final, Song ledthe field along with countryman Cao Yifei in second and Raviin third and it stayed that way till the end.
Song ended with 250.2 to win gold, Cao with 248.6 forsilver and Ravi, after making three international ISSF finalsin the year without a medal, finally secured one finishingwith 225.7 for Bronze.
Narang was consistent throughout the final and finishedfourth with 205.6. The trio also combined for the team silvermedal with a total of 1876.6, ahead of Japan (1866.7) andbehind China (1885.9)Arjun Babuta, an ISSF junior world cup bronze-medallistlast year, also had an excellent day in the junior men's 10mair rifle event. He shot consistently to win a silver behindrising Chinese star Yukun Liu, a reigning junior worldchampion and a winner of two ISSF World Cup stage medals thisyear in the senior category.
Arjun finished just 0.1 point behind Liu in the final.
The other Indian in the final Tejas Krishna Prasad waseliminated in seventh position. However, the duo combined withSunmoon Singh Brar to bag the Team Silver medal with acombined score of 1867.5.
In the women's 10m air rifle, Anjum Moudgil and MeghanaSajjanar made it to the finals, shooting scores of 417.5 and415.9 to qualify in second and fourth positions respectively.
Pooja Ghatkar, the third Indian in the fray, shot 413.6to finish 11th. Anjum thereafter missed a medal by a whisker,getting beaten in a shoot-off to determine third place, toSingapore's Tan Qian Xiu Adele.
Anjum shot 207.6 in the final, while Meghana Sajjanarfinished sixth shooting 163.4. Both won the Team Silver in theevent along with Pooja, logging a combined total of 1247 tofinish behind China.
Another rising Chinese star Shi Mengyao, who has two ISSFWorld Cup stage Golds this year and a Silver, won theindividual event with a score of 251 from teammate Ruozhu Zaowho shot 250.2. Singapore's Tan won Bronze with a score of228.2. PTI PMPM.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.