Saurabh Chaudhary continued his rich form with a gold in the men’s 10 meter Air Pistol event to successfully conclude the Indian shooting team’s best ever campaign at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Wednesday.
The 16-year-old shot 244.2 points to claim the yellow metal ahead of silver medallist Sung Yunho of South Korea. Yunho finished with 236.7 points to come second. Switzerland’s Solari Jason settled for the bronze after shooting 215.6 points at the Parque Polideportivo Roca shooting range.
Earlier, Chaudhary had topped the qualification round having with 580 points. His series of cores of 97, 96, 95, 100, 95, 97 put him ahead of Iran’s Salavati Erfan and Czech Republic’s Schejbal Pavel.
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Chaudhary, who hails from the Kalina village near Meerut, led the eight men final event right from the start with scores of 18 and 10. His first four scores were though under 10. But the teenage shooter cemented his domination with a score of 10.7, 10.4, 10.4 and 10.0 in the next four shots.
He thus became the second Indian shooter to claim a gold at the 2018 Youth Games after another 16-year-old Manu Bhaker had also clinched the top honour in the women’s 10m Air Pistol event. Mehuli Ghosh and Tushar Mane – both of whom claimed the silver in their respective 10m Air Rifle event are the other shooters to win a medal.
Chaudhary had also become the fifth Indian shooter to win a gold medal at the Asian Games when he beat a host of multiple Olympic and World champions to win the gold in the 10m Air Pistol event in Jakarta.
Later that month, he created a new junior world record by clinching the Air Pistol gold in the men’s category at the 52nd ISSF World Championship in Changwon.
Image Source: India Today