Himanshu, Rudrankksh ensure double delight for India

Himanshu Dhillon and Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil ensured a double delight for India in the men's 10m air rifle on Monday, winning a silver and bronze respectively in Aichi on Monday.

Rudrankksh, 22, led the 24-shot final till the 15th shot but fell to third as defending champion Sheng Lihao mounted a charge.

Lihao, the reigning Olympic champion and the current world No.1, then got into a familiar rhythm and never let go of the top spot even as the fight for second and third places intensified between compatriots Rudrankksh and Himanshu.

Rudrankksh climbed into the silver medal position going into the final four shots but a poor 9.7 on his 21st attempt consigned him to the third place. Defending champion Lihao eventually won with a Games redord 254.2 points, followed by Himanshu (252.4) and Rudrankksh (230.9).

The only survivor in the Indian men's rifle team from the 2023 Hangzhou Games, Rudrankksh was fourth in the previous Asiad where Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar's bronze was India's lone individual medal in the event.

Rudrankksh, a former world champion, had qualified for the final in third place with a solid 631.8 while 20-year-old debutant Himanshu was seventh with 630.0. The other Indian in the fray, Parth Mane, missed the eight-shooter final, ending 11th with a 628.3 on his Games debut.

Earlier in the day, the Indian trio shot a silver with an aggregate of 1890.1 points, behind China’s Sheng Lihao, Ma Sihan and Zhang Changhong, who totalled 1899.0, which is the qualification world record. The Indians were the defending champions in the event.

Lihao was the leading performer with 635.4 points, also an Asian qualification record. Fellow Chinese Sihan came second while Changhong was fifth, finishing inside the top eight, although the latter failed to make the cut for the individual final because only two shooters from the same country could appear in the final.