– by Pratyusha Mukherjee, Aichi-Nagoya, Japan
India’s trio of Tilottama Sen, Vidarsa K. Vinod and Ashi Chouksey won team silver in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions, before Sen narrowly missed out on individual bronze and Vinod finished fifth in a dramatic final.
India claimed another silver medal in shooting at the Asian Games as Tilottama Sen, Vidarsa K. Vinod and Ashi Chouksey combined for 1,763-90x to finish second in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions team event.
China took gold with 1,773-90x, matching the Asian Games record, while Kazakhstan secured bronze with 1,754.
Sen led India’s qualification effort with 590-32x, followed by Vinod with 588-29x and Chouksey with 585-29x. The qualification round also determined the individual finalists, with Sen finishing third and Vinod recovering strongly from a slow start to place sixth. Both advanced to the eight-woman final, while Chouksey finished 15th.
Sen came agonisingly close to an individual medal. She held a 0.3-point advantage over South Korea’s Kim Jieun heading into the final shot for bronze, but a 9.4 from the Indian shooter opened the door for Kim, who responded with a 10.5 to take third. Sen finished fourth.
Vinod’s final also ended in dramatic fashion. A 10.4 allowed her to survive one elimination and finish ahead of Kazakhstan’s Arina Malinovskaya, who totalled 316.7. However, a 10.0 on the following shot brought Vinod’s challenge to an end, leaving her fifth with 327.4.
Kim finished with 348.4 for bronze, just 0.3 points behind China’s Han Jiayu, who had reached 348.7 at the same stage before advancing to a two-way gold-medal shootout against compatriot Zhang Liyuan.
The gold-medal contest went down to the final shot. Han’s 10.5 gave her a 359.0 total and a new Asian Record, edging Zhang, who finished with 358.8 for silver.
The silver is Vinod’s second medal of the Games. She had earlier joined Elavenil Valarivan and Sonam Uttam Maskar to win silver in the women’s 10m air rifle team event on September 20, behind China’s world-record score.
Image: Asian Games / NRAI
