It was a dream start for India on day 2 of Asian Games 2023 as the men’s 10m air rifle team of Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil, Divyansh Singh Panwar, and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar bagged the first gold medal for India in Hangzhou.
They not only finished at the top of the podium but also smashed the world record. In the individual qualification round the trio shot a total of 1893.7 points, which was 0.4 points more than the previous world record score set by China last month in the Baku World Championship.
Rudrankksh, who finished third in qualification, was the pick of the team, scoring 632.5. Aishwary, with 631.6 points, finished fifth. Divyansh just managed to make the cut courtesy of more inner 10s than Kazakhstan’s Islam Satpayev. His final score was 629.6.
Despite all 3 shooters finishing in Top 8, only Aishwary and Rudrankksh went through to the final. As per Asian Games rules only two from each country can qualify for Final. Hence, Divyansh missed out.