World championship silver medallist Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar beat teammate Niraj Kumar to clinch gold with a world record, as India swept the podium in the 50m rifle 3-positions event on the penultimate day of the Asian Championship here on Thursday. Aishwary, who signed off 2025 on a high by clinching Asian Championship gold in Kazakhstan along with silver medals at the World Championships and the World Cup Finals, carried that momentum into the new year. He fired a world record score of 362 to edge Niraj by a margin of just 0.2 points. The 25-year-old sealed his triumph with a superb 10.7 on his final shot, finishing with a tally of 362. Niraj settled for silver with 361.8, while Akhil Sheoran claimed bronze with a score of 343.5 at the Karni Singh Shooting Range.
It was a bittersweet moment for Niraj, who came agonisingly close to gold but had to settle for silver, even as he celebrated his first individual international medal. The contest went down to the 35th and final shot, underscoring just how tight the battle for the top spot had been. Niraj fired first to hit a 10.3 giving Aishwary a target of 10.6 to win the gold. Olympian Aishwary held his nerve and hit a superb 10.7 to leap over Niraj and secure the gold. Earlier, Niraj had topped the qualification round with a score of 593, while Aishwary finished second with 588 and Sheoran placed third with an identical score of 588.
The trio of Niraj, Aishwary and Sheoran totalled 1769 to clinch the team gold, followed by Japan (1754) and Kazakhstan (1748) respectively. In the junior men`s final, Adriyan Karmakar secured his second gold medal of the championship with a comfortable victory, shooting a score of 353.2, which was 4.7 more than silver medallist Dmitriy Kim of Kazakhstan. India`s Manvendra Singh Shekhawat won bronze with a final score of 338.6. The third Indian in the final, Hemant Burman finished in fifth place going down in a shoot-off. The championship will conclude on Saturday with the medals in women`s 50m rifle prone and men`s 25m centre-fire pistol to be decided.
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