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New Delhi: Olympian Sift Kaur Samra took the centrestage at the Asian Shooting Championships, helping India clinch a golden double in Shymkent (Kazakhstan). Samra claimed the individual women’s 50m rifle 3 positions gold and played a key role in securing the team title as well, on a profitable day for India.

Samra, a world record holder, shot a superb 459.2 in the final to beat China’s Yang Yujie (458.8) for the top prize, while the trio of Samra, Anjum Moudgil and Ashi Chouksey also bagged the gold with an aggregate of 1753 points.

Samra extended his Asian Championships tally to four gold medals. She had qualified for the eight-shooter final at No.1 spot with a score of 589.

Another Indian, Shriyanka Sadandi, who was competing for ‘Ranking Points Only’ (RPO), finished the qualification round at the top, but was not eligible for the final as RPO shooters cannot compete for medals.

Samra started off with scores of 151.0, 156.2 in the kneeling and prone positions, and once, in the zone, was unstoppable in the standing-elimination round. She had to be on top of her game till the end in the face of a late fightback of the Chinese rival, who finished just 0.4 points behind the Indian. Japan’s Nobata Misaki (448.2) claimed the bronze medal.

50m Rifle 3 Positions Women Final | Day 8
16th Asian Shooting Championship (All Events), Shymkent, Kazakhstan

🥇Sift Kaur Samra (IND)
🥈Yang Yujie (CHN)
🥉Misaki Nobata (JPN)

Congratulations to all the medal winners and participants for their outstanding performances. pic.twitter.com/bDZbHd5jVO

— Asian Shooting Confederation (@Asian_Shooting)

Chouksey, despite finishing in fourth spot in the qualification round, endured a poor outing in the final and ended in seventh place with 402.8 points.

Seasoned pro and two-time Olympian Anjum finished 22nd in a high-class field of 41 shooters.

Samra continued the momentum in the team event as well and led from the front to help the team to the gold medal along with Anjum and Ashi.

Samra had the highest score (589) of the three shooters ahead of Ashi (586) and Anjum (578) as the trio clinched the gold medal ahead of Japan, who aggregated 1750 and South Korea (1745).