Rudrankksh, Mehuli duo wins India’s fifth gold in Asian Olympic Qualifiers

Mehuli Ghosh and Rudrankksh Patil combined strongly to help India to a mixed air rifle gold, with a 16-10 victory over China, in the Asian shooting championship in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Tuesday.

The Chinese duo of Shen Yufan and Zhu Mingshuai had topped qualification with 632.3, one point better than India, but the combination of World Champion Rudrankksh and World Championship medallist Mehuli, was able to strike well in the gold medal match.

The Indian junior air rifle shooters Isha Taksale and Umamahesh Maddineni also bagged the gold, boosting India’s gold collection, following four gold medals on the opening day.

READ | Varun Tomar, Esha Singh bag Olympic quotas with 10m Air Pistol gold at Asian Qualifiers

In fact, the second Indian team of Anvii Rathod and Abhinav Shaw beat one of the Indonesian teams for the bronze as well. The other Indonesian pair won an automatic bronze as the field had only five teams.

However, the Indian mixed air pistol team of Rhythm Sangwan and Arjun Singh Cheema was beaten 17-11 by Vietnam

The main focus of the teams would be to secure Olympic quota places for the Paris Games. India has won two through Varun Tomar and Esha Singh on the opening day in air pistol. Having won all possible eight Olympic quota already in rifle, India will look to add to its Olympic quota from rapid fire pistol and sports pistol.