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

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.

Chaudhary had set the junior world record by shooting a total of 243.7 in the 10m air pistol event in the International Shooting Sport Federation tournament earlier this year.

Hobby shooter Abhishek Verma, also making his Asian Games debut at 29, settled for the bronze medal in the same event with a score of 219.3.