Asiad shooting: Sarabjot-Divya win silver in 10m air pistol mixed team event

The Indian duo lost to China’s Bowen Zhang and Ranxin Jiang 16-14 in the gold medal match.

Sarabjot-Divya led the gold medal playoff 7-3 at one stage, but Zhang, the reigning world champion in the men’s individual event and Ranxin, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics mixed team gold medallist, mounted a strong comeback.

The Chinese pair first levelled the score at 7-7 and took it from there to win the final by two points. The first to reach 16 points in mixed team finals wins the medal.

This was India’s 19th medal in shooting at the Asian Games 2023. It is India’s best showing in shooting at the continental showpiece with six gold, eight silver and five bronze medals.

In the qualification round, Sarabjot shot 291/300 of his 30 shots while Divya managed 286/300. They topped the 19-team event with a combined score of 577.

Zhang and Ranxin progressed to the final courtesy of finishing second with a score of 576. The top two teams marched into the final while teams finishing from third to sixth made it to the two bronze medal matches.

Iran beat Pakistan 16-14 for the bronze medal while the Republic of Korea beat Japan 16-8 for the other bronze, Olympics.com reported.

Earlier at the Hangzhou Asian Games, Sarabjot won the gold medal with the men’s 10m air pistol team. Divya was a member of India’s silver medal-winning women’s 10m air pistol team.

Indian shooters will also compete in men’s and women’s trap events on the final day of the shooting events on Sunday.