Aishwary settles for silver; heartbreak for Swapnil in 50m rifle 3-positions at Asian Games

Hangzhou: India's Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar missed out on a gold medal as he signed off with a silver in men' 50m rifle 3-positions at the Asian Games here on Friday.

On a day when India reaped five medals in the shooting arena -- two gold and three silver -- China's Du Linshu created an Asian Games record score of 460.6 to deny the 22-year-old Aishwary the top podium spot.

The Indian had a final score of 459.7, while home team marksman Tain Jiaming took the third place behind Aishwary with a score of 448.3.

The biggest setback, though, was for veteran Indian marksman Swapnil Kusale, who was gunning for a sure-shot gold after leading for a major part of the finals, but a rank poor shot of 7.6 saw the 28-year-old take a mighty tumble from No.1 position to fifth in the 'standing position'.

That virtually eliminated him from medal contention and though he shot 10.5 and 10.1 in his last two shots he could only manage a fourth place finish.

Aishwary, will however, go back home satisfied having won the 10m air rifle and 50m rifle 3-positions team gold medals, besides individual bronze in 10m air rifle and a silver in 50m rifle today.

Indian shooters thus recorded their best ever showing at the Asian Games, having so far amassed 18 medals, including six gold.

The previous best was at the Doha Asian Games in 2006 where they won 14 medals.