Indian shooters win three air pistol medals in World University C'ship

India's Aakash Bhardwaj and Palak clinched silver in the 10m air pistol event for men and women respectively as the hosts bagged three medals on the opening day of the World University Shooting Championship here on Saturday.

Arshdeep Kaur took the bronze behind Palak at the Karni Singh Shooting range.

Aakash shot 579 in the qualification round to be placed second going into the final, while two more Indians, Samrat Rana and Amit Sharma, too made it to the eight-shooter final with scores of 577 and 576 respectively. The Czech Republic's Pavel Schejbal topped the qualification with a superb 586.

In the final, Aakash gave a tough fight to Pavel before missing gold by a point. Pavel shot 239.8, while Aakash tallied 238.8. Amit and Samrat finished sixth and seventh respectively.

Filip Wagner won the bronze medal.

In women's 10m air pistol, three Indians -- Sainyam (576), Arshdeep (574), and Palak (573) -- made it to the final in third, fourth, and fifth place respectively, with Chinese Taipei's Liu Heng-Yiu scoring 578 to top the qualification round.

In a closely contested final, Liu clinched the gold, winning by a fraction of a point. While the Chinese Taipei shooter shot 239.4, Palak tallied 239.1. Arshdeep took the bronze, scoring 219, while Sainyam finished sixth.

As many as 220 shooters from across 23 countries are competing in the championship. The event is being hosted by Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies.