Asian Games: 16-yr-old Saurabh Chaudhary clinches gold, Abhishek Verma bags bronze in 10m Air Pistol

Asian Games 2018: Saurabh Chaudhary’s staggering effort took India’s gold tally in Asian Games to three with two other gold medals coming from Wrestling through Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat.

16-year-old Saurabh Chaudhary shattered the Asian Games record by notching up a total score of 240.1 to clinch gold in the Men’s 10m Air Pistol event even as another Indian shooter Abhishek Verma settled for Bronze in the same event. Saurabh Chaudhary’s staggering effort took India’s gold tally in Asian Games to three with two other gold medals coming from Wrestling through Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat. The Junior World Record holder, Verma, shot a Games record score of 240.7 to pip Japan's Tomoyuki Matsuda (239.7) in an exciting final. Chaudhary grabbed the lead after Matsuda fired 8.9 in his penultimate shot. The Indian went ahead with a 10.2 off his second-last shot and held the nerve to stay ahead. Expectations were high from Chaudhary as he had broken the world record on way to winning a gold in the Junior World Cup in Germany a couple of months ago. But not many thought that he would emulate the golden feat achieved by the likes of Jaspal Rana, Randhir Singh, Jitu Rai and Ronjan Sodhi at such a young age. "I did not feel any pressure," said Chaudhary, who picked up the sport only three years ago when asked about the competition that included Matsuda and Jin Jingoh from South Korea, the multiple-time Olympic and world champion. He did not show any sign of nerves even in the qualification held earlier in the day, bossing it with a 586. Jongoh was second in the qualification while Verma finished sixth. Chaudhary, a student of class XI, will be off to the World Championships after the Games. He learnt the tricks of the trade at Amit Sheoran's academy at Benoli near Baghpat, 53 kilometres from Meerut. Whenever he is home, he helps his father in the farming business. "I like farming. We don't get much time off from training but whenever I do, I go back to my Village (Kalina) and help my father," said Chaudhary. Like Chaudhary, Rohtak-based Verma also picked up the sport three years ago. The 29-year-old lawyer-cum-shooter did begin well but saved his best for the last to win bronze. "I was nervous in the beginning seeing a field like that. But then I composed myself. It is my first international event and I have won a medal. It feels great of course," Verma, who hails from Rohtak, told PTI. In the fifth series, he shot a couple of 10.7s to get himself into medal contention. He consolidated from there, producing a solid finish. He and another teen sensation Manu Bhaker had disappointed in the mixed team event, failing to qualify for the final. "The fact that Manu and I failed to qualify in mixed team, we were not disappointed. We learnt a lot from that failure," he said about that missed opportunity.