India’s Himanshu Dhillon and Rudrankksh Patil added an individual silver and bronze, respectively, to the country’s shooting haul at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Monday, capping a memorable morning after the duo had earlier helped India win silver in the men’s 10m air rifle team event.Himanshu held his nerve through the seven-series final to finish second with a score of 252.4, while Rudrankksh ended with 230.9 for bronze. China’s reigning Olympic champion Sheng Lihao won the gold with 254.2, finishing 1.8 points ahead of Himanshu.The two Indians had entered the eight-shooter final after producing strong qualification scores earlier in the morning. Rudrankksh finished third in qualification with 631.8, while Himanshu was seventh with 630.0. Their qualification performances had already secured their places in the individual final and helped India to the team silver.Himanshu started the final strongly, scoring 52.2 in the opening series and moving to 104.8 after two series. He remained in medal contention throughout the elimination phase, eventually finishing second behind Sheng.Rudrankksh, meanwhile, opened with 52.8 and moved into the medal positions early in the final. He remained in the top three through the elimination rounds before finishing with 230.9.The individual medals came just hours after Rudrankksh, Himanshu and Parth Mane combined for 1890.1 points to win silver in the men’s 10m air rifle team event. China took gold with a world-record 1899.0, while South Korea won bronze with 1884.2.The double podium finish means all three Indian shooters who qualified for the team event contributed to a medal-winning performance, with Parth missing out on the individual final after finishing 10th in qualification.For Rudrankksh, the bronze adds another Asian Games medal to his collection after he was part of India’s gold-medal winning men’s 10m air rifle team at the Hangzhou Games. His latest medal also comes after he had won the individual gold at the Asian Rifle/Pistol Championships in New Delhi earlier this year.For Himanshu, the silver marks a major individual achievement at the Asian Games and comes in his first appearance in the competition’s 10m air rifle individual final.India’s shooting campaign in Aichi-Nagoya has now produced a string of medals in the 10m air rifle events. Elavenil Valarivan had earlier won individual silver after also being part of India’s silver-winning women’s 10m air rifle team.With Himanshu’s silver and Rudrankksh’s bronze added to the team silver won earlier on Monday, India’s 10m air rifle campaign has delivered three medals in the men’s event alone.The result also strengthens the early momentum for an Indian shooting contingent that had produced a record 22 medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games, including seven golds.
