Asian Games 2023: Indian shooters Aishwary Pratap, Swapnil Kusale, Akhil Sheoran clinch world record team gold in men's 50m Air Rifle 3 Positions

Aishwary had earlier won multiple medals in the 10m Air Rifle shooting event.

Asian Games 2023 is turning out to be an event that could be remembered for the shooters as India clinched yet another gold. The trio of Aishwary Pratap Tomar, Swapnil Kusale, and Akhil Sheoran with a combined 1769 points took the pole position in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men's team event. In the process, the Indian trio also beat the world record by eight points set by the USA last year.

The event comprises of three positions Kneeling, Prone, and Standing with shooters firing for two rounds of 100 points each in all three positions. Tomar and Swapnil started off brilliantly with three consecutive 10s, while Akhil had two nines and a 10. Tomar who has already won two medals in the Hangzhou Asian Games 2023, had a fantastic finish in the Kneeling position with a score of 199/200.

Known for his consistency, Swapnil showed the way with twin scores of 98 and Akhil improved his second-round score from 95 to 99 to keep India in the hunt for the gold. Just like the women's team, the men's team did well with some precise shooting in the prone position. Swapnil hit a perfect 100 in his first round in the prone position, while the other two Indians scored 98 each.

India were trailing by two points at the end of the Prone position and it was down to the team which keeps up pressure in the Standing position. It was the tougher of the three positions and as the famous saying goes, when the going got tough the tough got going. With a mix of calmness and precision, they stream rolled past the Chinese.

In the first round of the standing position, the Indians scored 295 to China's 291. It turned the tables as from trailing by two points, India went into the lead by two points. There was no looking back as team India kept the lead to snatch the gold from the Chinese by 8 points. The hosts were surprised at the end as they ended up with silver despite breaking the then-world record. Korea finished a distant third with 1748 points.

The top two qualifiers are Swapnil (591) and Aishwary (591) who both set new Asian and Games records.