Dhanush, Priyesha extend India's shooting gold rush at Deaflympics

Dhanush Srikanth teamed up with Priyesha Deshmukh to win the 10m air rifle mixed team competition and extend Indian shooters' gold rush at the 24th Deaflympics in Caxias do Sul, Brazil. Shooting on competition day six, Dhanush and Priyesha beat Germany's Sebastian Herrmann and Sabrina Eckert 16-10 in the gold medal match. This was Dhanush's second gold of the Games after having won the individual men's 10m air rifle.

Hailing from Telangana, Dhanush trains at Olympic medallist Gangan Narang's academy in Hyderabad.

India now has three gold medals in shooting at the Deaflympics with Abhinav Deshwal winning the men's 10m air pistol event on Friday. India also has two bronze medals through Shourya Saini in the men's 10m air rifle and Vedika Sharma in the women's 10m air pistol for a total of five medals from shooting alone.

Shourya and Natasha Joshi, the second Indian pair in the 10m air rifle mixed team competition, also made it to the bronze medal match but went down 8-16 to the Ukrainian pair of Oleksandr Kostyk and Violeta Lykova.

Dhanush and Priyesha were in their elements from the qualification round itself, where they topped the eight-team field with a combined effort of 414.0 to ensure a shot at gold. The Germans who followed them to the title round were a distant second with 408.7. Shourya and Natasha finished third with 407.4 but the fourth-placed Ukrainian pair turned the tables on them in the medal round.

India has sent 10 shooters in their 65-strong contingent for the Brazil Deaflympics.