Shardul Vihan shoots four gold medals at shotgun nationals

New Delhi [India], Nov 21 (ANI): Fourteen-year-old Shardul Vihan of Uttar Pradesh turned in a sensational performance on Tuesday as he won four gold medals on a single day in the ongoing 61st National Shooting Championship Competitions here at Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range.

Shardul won the senior and junior men's double trap individual as well as the team events to completely dominate the shotgun ranges.

Shardul, who came in a creditable sixth at the Junior World Championship in Moscow this year, turned the tables on current world number one double trapper Ankur Mittal 78-76 in the men's final.

The only blemish for the teenager was perhaps in the qualifying rounds, where he finished second while losing a shoot-off 8-7 to India international Mohammed Asab.

In the junior men's event, Shardul won 77-74 in the final calculations against fellow teenager and India international Shapath Bharadwaj of Uttarakhand.

Sehajpreet Singh of Punjab won bronze finishing with 55 in the finals.

Here too Shardul had tied for top spot with an identical score of 137, but unlike in the seniors where he had to undergo a four-way shoot-off to determine top spot, here he had only state-mate Ahvar Rizvi to beat and won 7-5.

The team events in double trap were basically an extended story of the brilliant day these two UP teenagers Shardul and Ahvar were.

In the men's team, they ganged up with Md. Asab, who won the individual Bronze on the day as well with a finals score of 55 behind Shardul and Ankur, to easily win Gold with a combined score of 411.

Team Haryana, comprising of Ankur Mittal, Sangram Dahiya and Ajay Mittal shot 394 for the Silver while Madhya Pradesh (MP) won Bronze.

In the junior men's team they partnered Azghar Hussain Khan to shoot a combined 392, way ahead of second placed Punjab with 352 and third placed MP with 348.

Skeet competitions are set to commence from Wednesday. (ANI)