World University Games: Indian shooters and archers add six medals

Indian shooters and compound archers ruled the roost, bagging six medals including four golds at the World University Games in Chengdu, China on Monday.

Shooters Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Divyansh Singh Panwar and Arjun Babuta joined forces to outclass local favourites China to win the 10m air rifle men's team gold.

The Indian trio, with a combined score of 1894.7, surpassed the shooting men's 10m air rifle team world record on Monday as they beat China's Li Xinmiao, Song Buhan and Zhu Xiaozhong (1881.9) to clinch the yellow metal while Kazakhstan finished third. Aishwary and Divyansh then made it a one-two finish in the 10m air rifle men's individual event.

In a dominant display, Aishwary consistently shot scores in the higher 10s for a total of 252.6 to snatch the gold as Divyansh had to be content with a silver.

India shot 1894.7 points for the title, 7.3 points ahead of the previous world record set by China in 2018.

However, since the shooting results of FISU World University Games are not included in the results of the ISSF, the governing body for Olympic shooting events, it does not count as a new world record, Xinhua reported.

"I am very happy and proud of winning the gold medal in the World University Games. My efforts paid off," said Indian shooter Aishwary Tomar.

China's Buhan was a distant third with a score of 229.0 Compound archers also contributed to India's tally, adding two golds and a bronze medal. Avneet Kaur pipped USA's Alyssa Grace Sturgill in a thrilling shoot off to clinch the compound women's individual gold.

After the scores were tied at 144-144, the gold medal match entered a shoot off. Sturgill was first to go, shooting a disappointing 8 while Avneet kept her calm to land a 10. Sangampreet Bisla and Aman Saini clinched the gold and bronze medals in the men's individual event.

Needing a nine to win, Sangampreet send the arrow to 10 to secure the gold medal, quashing South African Christian De Klerk's hopes of a top finish. In the bronze medal match, Aman fended off a challenge from Frenchmen Bouleau Victor 148-146 to grab the last spot on the podium. Both Sangampreet and Aman were part of the Indian men's team that won the bronze on Sunday. India are currently tied second in the medal standings with Japan. Both have 17 medals, including nine gold, three silver and five bronze. Hosts China lead the standings with a haul of 21 medals.