Palembang: 15-year-old Shardul Vihan from Meerut became the youngest and the third Indian teenager to win a shooting medal at the ongoing Asian Games in Indonesia.
Vihan, who scored 73 in the final, had earlier topped the qualification round with a commendable score of 141. On the other hand, Korea’s Hyunwoo Shin and Qatar’s Hamad Ali Al Marri won the gold and bronze respectively with scores of 74 and 53 respectively.
Notably, Vihan became the third Indian to win a medal in the double trap event. Earlier, Ronjan Sodhi had won gold in 2010 while the current Sports Minister of India Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore had won a silver in 2010.
The teenager had started competing in junior competitions in 2015 and stood sixth in the same event at the junior World Championships in 2017. He is the third teenager after Saurabh Chaudhary (who won gold in 10m air pistol) and Lakshay Sheoran (who won a silver in trap) to win a shooting medal for India in Palembang.
Prasanta Patnaik