Abhinav Deshwal wins 25m pistol gold at Deaflympics

Tokyo, Nov 23 (PTI) Abhinav Deshwal won India's 15th medal in shooting at the Deaflympics, clinching the gold in the 25m pistol event here on Sunday with a record in qualification.

He shot a score of 44 in the final to edge out South Korea's Seung Hwa Lee, who finished on a score of 43.

Serhii Formin of Ukraine won the bronze while the other Indian shooter, Chetan Hanmant Sapkal, finished in fifth place.

Abhinav started the final with five perfect hits, following it up with another four hits in the second series.

He hit the next 18 of 20 shots which included two series of perfect fives and two rounds of four hits. He then hit two perfect rounds and followed it up with a round of four hits.

In the 10th and final round, Abhinav hit three, his lowest round in the final but it was enough for the shooter to win gold.

Earlier in qualification, Abhinav equalled the World Deaf Qualification record and the Deaflympics record with a score of 575-13x. Chetan qualified for the final in second place with a score of 573-21x. PTI AH UNG