Sixteen-year-old Saurabh Chaudhary won India’s third gold medal and first in shooting, at the ongoing 18th Asian Games in the 10m air pistol event.
Debutant, Abhishek Verma won the bronze medal in his international debut. The 29 year old shot 219.3 to clinch the bronze. Also, Sanjeev Rajput bagged the silver medal in the 50m Rifle 3 Position’s Men Event.
The prodigious Chaudhary, who was competing in his first senior event, became only the fifth Indian shooter, after Jaspal Rana, Randhir Singh, Jitu Rai and Ronjan Sodhi to win a gold in the history of the Asian Games. He showed a lot of composure and maturity against the 2010 World Champion Tomoyuki Matsuda from Japan in the 24 shot final where he came out on top.
Chaudhary shot a record score of 240.7 in the final after the 42 year old Matsuda misfired to settle for a silver with a score of 239.7
The 16 year old who is the son of a farmer in the Kalina village in Meerut had earlier broken the world record en route to a gold medal at the Junior World Cup in Germany a few months ago.
Having started playing the sport only three years ago, Chaudhary said that he “did not feel any pressure.”