World Championship in Deaf Shooting: Shourya Saini sets record and wins gold in three-position shooting with the 50-meter rifle

New Delhi, September 6 (IANS): Shourya Saini shot a world championship record for the deaf with 452.4 and secured the gold medal in the men's three-position shooting (50 m rifle) on the sixth day of the 2nd World Championship in Deaf Shooting 2024 in Hanover.

Chetan Hanmant Sapkal won the bronze in the men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (RFP) event, taking India's medal tally at the championships to 17 medals – five gold, seven silver and five bronze.

Shourya had earlier qualified for the final with a qualifying score of 580. The other Indian in the fray, Kushagra Singh, finished fourth in the final. This is Shourya's second medal in the championships after earlier winning a silver in the men's individual 10m air rifle shooting event.

Chetan shot 534 in the men's RFP to win bronze behind Ukrainian duo Serhii Ohorodnyk and Oleksandr Kolodii, who won gold and silver respectively.

Meanwhile, Mahit Sandhu clinched the gold medal in the women's 50m rifle prone on Thursday while Abhinav Deshwal secured silver in the men's 25m pistol on Day 5. India continued to deliver impressive performances at the 2nd World Deaf Shooting Championship 2024.

For Mahit, this was her second gold and third medal at the World Deaf Shooting Championships after she won gold in the mixed 10m air rifle shooting and silver in the women's 10m air rifle individual event along with Dhanush Srikanth.

She scored 247.4 points in the final, 2.2 more than Hungary's Mira Biatovszki. She qualified for the final after winning the best qualifying round with 617.8 points. The other Indian shooter, Natasha Joshi, finished seventh in the final.

Abhinav Deshwal was beaten by a single point in the final series by Ukraine's Oleksandr Kolodii. After the ninth series, both shooters were tied at 37 points and in the tenth series, Oleksandr shot a perfect five while Abhinav managed only four points and had to settle for silver.