Palak, Esha gold-silver feat makes it a historic day for India

Two teenagers Palak Gulia and Esha Singh gets gold and silver for India in the 10m air pistol event for India at the Asian Games 2023In one of the most trailblazing efforts seen by Indian shooters the duo challenged each other for the top podium finish until 17yearold Palak clinched the gold medal and Esha the silver to swell the countrys tally in the sport to 17 six of them goldPakistans Talat Kishmala settled for a bronze after giving a tough fight to EshaTaking to Twitter A Brilliant Victory Unfolds s 10m Air Pistol shooter and KheloIndiaAthlete Palak has clinched the GOLD MEDAL at AsianGames2022 adding another glorious chapter to our nations shooting legacy The 17 year old has not only delivered big but surprised us allhellip pictwittercomKVuN6yCIGsmdash SAI Media Media_SAI September 29 2023This is the first major individual medal for Palak in an international competition after she came on the shooting scene just last year She shot 2421 in the finals for an Asian Games recordEsha who had won the individual silver in 25m pistol on Wednesday and was part of the triumvirate that won the 10m air pistol team silver along with Palak and Divya TS earlier on Friday settled for silver scoring 2397Also Read Asian Games 2023 India mens team bags fifth gold in shooting womens team strikes silverThe unprecedented success of Indian marksmen continued in the 50m rifle arena as well with the mens 3positions team comprising the young trio of Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar 591 Swapnil Kusale 591 and Akhil Sheoran 587 overcoming the Chinese challenge with a world record score of 1769 to take the top podium finishHosts China were a clear six points adrift with 1763 points while South Korea were a distant third with 1748 pointsThe mens trio smashed the world record by a whopping eight pointsAishwary and Swapnil shot superbly to make the individual finals as well and are placed first and second after the qualification round something never ever seen before in a sport dominated by the Chinese at the Asian levelThe third Indian in the competition Akhil despite finishing fifth with 587 in qualification will miss out on the eightteam finals as only two shooters per country are allowed in the individual medal roundSwapnil one of the medal prospects at next years Olympic Games in Paris was firing on all cylinders shooting down the qualification Asian and Asian Games record on way to a superb 591Not to be left behind Aishwary too shot an identical score to be tied with Swapnil but entered the finals placed second because of fewer shots closer to the bulls eye inner10s Swapnil had 33 inner10s while Aishwary had 27The two Chinese who made it to the finals Du Linshu and Tian Jiaming were placed third and fourth respectively behind the two young IndiansBoth Swapnil and Aishwary shot an average of 9850 out of a maximum score of 10 on each of the shots in the qualification round in all three positions kneeling prone and standing an incredible achievement considering the pressure from the relentless ChineseIn fact Swapnil had a 199200 in prone while Aishwary had an identical score in kneeling positionEsha leads from the frontTeenager Esha led from the front as she guided the Indian womens 10m air pistol team to a silver medalThe trio of 18yearold Esha 579 Palak 577 and Divya TS 575 aggregated 1731 points for their silver medal while China took the gold with a total of 1736 which is an Asian Games recordChinese Taipei finished with a bronze totalling 1723The scores in the qualification round decide the team medallists while eight topscoring shooters move into the finals to win individual gloryEsha had also claimed a silver medal in the womens individual 25m pistol event on Wednesday while the trio of Manu Bhaker Esha and Rhythm Sangwan had fired in tandem to shoot the gold medal in the womens 25m pistol team event on the same dayWith Agency Inputs