India’s Singhraj Adhana has clinched bronze medal in P1 Men’s 10m Air Pistol SH1 final at the Tokyo Paralympic Games on Tuesday.
This is Indian's shooting contingent second medal at the Tokyo Paralympics after the 19-year-old Avani Lekhara became the first woman from the country to win a gold medal on Monday. China's Chao Yang created a Paralympic record with 237.9 points to win silver while another Chinese Xing Huang grabbed silver with 237.5 points.
Singhraj Adhana started the better of the two Indians in the final as he was placed in the top 3 during the first 10 shots while amassing 99.6 points. Manish Narwal who topped the qualification, had a very jittery start to the final as he gathered 97.2 in the 1st competition stage. In the second stage, he became the second competitor to be eliminated.
Meanwhile, Singhraj Adhana held his nerves better in the elimination round to see off a scare from the Chinese. Taking his 19th shot Singhraj was dropped out of the medal position after he aimed 9.1 and with the 20th shot of 9.6, he got into the top three as Lou shot a very poor 8.6. In his last two shots, the Indian aimed at 10.0 and 10.0 but it was just not good enough to topple down the top two Chinese pair.
Earlier in the day, Manish Narwal and Singhraj Adhana qualified for the medal round in the Men's 10m Air Pistol SH1, here at the Asaka Shooting Range on Tuesday. Manish Narwal amassed 575 -21x points at an average of 9.583 after shooting 60 shots on the target. He finished in the first position in the qualifying round just edging China's Xiaolong Lou on the number of X's(575 -15x). Meanwhile, Singhraj Adhana gathered 569 -18x to finish 6th in the qualifications.
As the pistol is held with one hand only, athletes in SH1 category have an impairment affecting one arm and/or the legs, for example resulting from amputations or spinal cord injuries. P1 is a classification for the men's 10 air pistol competition.
Some shooters compete in a seated position, while others take aim in a standing position as defined in the rules.
(With inputs from ANI and PTI)
