Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar added to India's shooting medal tally at the ongoing Hangzhou Asian Games with a bronze in men's 10m air rifle, beating compatriot and world champion Rudrankksh Patil in a shoot-off for third place on Monday.
Tomar, whose pet event is the men's 50m rifle 3 positions, showed his versatility and consistency in a steady final. The 22-year-old maintained his position, fighting off close competition from Patil.
China's Sheng Lihao won gold with start-to-finish dominance, setting the new world record with a score of 253.3. South Korea's Park won silver with 251.3 (which also broke the previous Games Record), the difference illustrating just how good the Chinese teenager was.
While gold and silver seemed to be a distance away, Tomar had to fight to stay in the top three after the eliminations began.
The highlight from an Indian perspective was how close Tomar and Patil were, exchanging places as the final progressed.
After 19 shots, Tomar and Patil was third and fourth respectively and were virtually shooting off for the medal. The scores were levelled after the next shot and Tomar had to win an actual shoot off to survive. He did it with a near-perfect 10.8 to assure himself of a major medal in his second discipline.
This is his second medal of the Asian Games, having been part of the gold winning men's 10m air rifle team. He was fifth in qualification with a score of 631.6.
The youngster from Madhya Pradesh has a chance to add to this in the 50m rifle 3P later this week, the discipline is which he has won most of his medals in.