Asian Shooting Championship: Sift Kaur Samra extends dominance, strikes gold in women's 50m rifle 3 positions event

India's Sift Kaur Samra, the reigning Asian Games champion, ensured the nation's stellar run remained intact at the Asian Shooting Championship 2025 in Shymkent, Kazakhstan, by scripting a gold medal victory in the women's 50m rifle 3 positions event on Tuesday. Before extending her dominance in the tournament, she bagged a team gold with Ashi Chouksey and Anjum Moudgil. Coming to her commanding performance in the individual final, she tallied 459.2 points to top the standings ahead of the People's Republic of China's Yujie Yang, who finished with 458.8 points.

Samra was trailing Yang by 0.3 points as the gripping final headed into the final two shots in the standing position. The Indian held demonstrated a lesson in composure by holding her nerve, shot 9.6 and 10.0 with her last two triggers. Yang agonisingly faltered with an 8.7 with her penultimate shot, and even a 10.2 in her final attempt failed to be her rescue act and forced her to settle for silver. Japan's Misaki Nobata finished third and took away the bronze with a tally of 448.2.

Ashi Chouksey, the second Indian in the eight-woman shooting final, finished outside the podium spot and settled for seventh with 402.8. Earlier in the tournament, Samra (589-24x) and Ashi (586-29x) concluded the qualification round in second and fifth place, respectively, to advance to the final. Shriyanka Sadandi, another Indian, topped the qualifiers, but she was competing for Ranking Points Only (RPO). Anjum Moudgil had a disappointing run and finished 22nd with 578-19x.

Despite her underwhelming tally, Sift, Ashi and Anjum's total tally of 1753 points was enough to lift India to the gold medal in the team category ahead of Japan, who fell three shy. The Republic of Korea scored 1745 to clinch the bronze medal. The two medals on Tuesday took India's tally to 19 medals, comprising nine gold, three silver and seven bronze in senior events at the 2025 Asian Shooting Championships. The two-time Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker has three bronze medals under her belt in the tournament. (ANI)

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