Youngsters make a bang, claim 10m air pistol gold

Sarabjot, Arjun and Shiva Narwal pipped the Chinese trio for team title; in the individual event, Sarabjot finished 4th

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Sarabjot Singh, Arjun Singh Cheema and Shiva Narwal continued the shooting team's stellar run at the Hangzhou Asian Games by bagging the 10m air pistol team gold at the Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre range on Thursday. The trio shot a combined score of 1734, finishing one point clear of China. Vietnam took the third spot with a score of 1730.

It is India's fifth gold in shooting, and sixth overall, taking the shooting medal count to 13. In their first Asian Games, the three Indians shot with calmness to claw their way back from eighth among 14 teams after the first series to eventually finish on top. In what was generally a lowscoring day, the young Indian team never lost patience despite finding it tough to hit the inner 10s consistently. In fact, second placed China and third-placed Vietnam had more high 10s (50 for India, 62 for China and 59 for Vietnam), but the Indians' superior consistency saw them through.

"I would say the biggest strength today was our consistency and never-say-die attitude. We didn't have an ideal start. It was not a typically high-scoring match, but the boys never lost focus and persevered," national pistol coach Samaresh Jung said.