Asian Championship: Suruchi and Rana shine, set junior record, clinch mixed team silver

Indian shooting stars Suruchi Singh and Samrat Rana delivered a stellar performance in the 10m air pistol mixed team event at the Asian Championship , but had to settle for silver on Thursday. The duo scored 479.6 , setting a new world and Asian junior record , while Uzbekistan edged past with a world-record 481.3 to claim gold.

The competition began with a bang as Suruchi and Rana posted 100.5 in the first series, taking an early lead in the four-team final. However, the Uzbek pair of Nigina Saidkulova and Mukhammad Kamalov surged ahead by the third series and maintained their lead through the elimination stage. Chinese Taipei secured bronze with a score of 412.2 .

The 19-year-old Suruchi Singh , who dominated last year’s ISSF World Cup circuit and topped the World Cup Final in Doha , teamed up with Samrat to lead the qualification round with a total of 583 . The Vietnamese pair, Vinh Thu Trinh and Minh Cong Lai, matched this score, but the Indians clinched the top spot on Inner 10s , 22-18, underscoring how tight the contest was.

The second Indian pair, double Olympic bronze medallist Manu Bhaker and Sharvan Kumar , scored 571 , finishing ninth and missing the final. With this, India’s senior section medal tally at the Championship stands at four medals : two golds, one silver, and a bronze.

In the junior section, the shooting prodigy added another gold by winning the women’s 10m air pistol with 237.9 , while compatriot Vanshika Chaudhary claimed silver with 236.7 . The junior team comprising Vanshika (577), Rashmika (572), and Agam Grewal (565) also struck gold, scoring a total of 1,714 , ahead of Kazakhstan (1,671) and Sri Lanka (1,631) .

India’s shooters continued their impressive run at the Championship, blending experience and youthful talent to shine on the Asian stage.