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

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

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

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

In 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 bronze medal.

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

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

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