KIYG 2023: Adriyan Karmakar and Anushka Thokur win gold medals in shooting

CHENNAI: Karnataka’s Anushka Thokur and West Bengal’s Adriyan Karmakar comfortably clinched the girls' and boys' 50m Rifle 3-position gold medals respectively in the 6th Khelo India Youth Games 2023 at the Guru Nanak College shooting range here on Thursday.

Anushka, who shifted to shooting a few years ago after being a competitive swimmer, scored 10 points more than the second-placed Melvina Angeline J. of Tamil Nadu to win the gold medal with a score of 460.8. Prachi Gaikwad of Maharashtra took the bronze with a score of 439.6.

The Karnataka shooter had qualified for the final in second position but raised the bar in the final, taking a comfortable lead after the kneeling and prone series and then maintaining that advantage to bag Karnataka’s first gold medal of this edition of the Games.

Later, Adriyan retained the gold medal he had won in the last edition in Bhopal with yet another dominant display.

The son of Olympian Joydeep Karmakar, Adriyan had topped the qualifying and maintained that momentum to score a total of 450.1 points in the final. Tamil Nadu’s S. Hitesh (444.2) bagged the silver medal and Rana Ggaarryy of Haryana won the bronze with a total of 432.8 points.

In the 10m Air Pistol category, Haryana’s Suruchi Phogat clinched the gold medal on the last shot after her state-mate Lakshita faltered under pressure.

Suruchi, who had won the 10m Air Pistol mixed title on the opening day of the competition, was 0.2 points behind Lakshita and only managed 9.7 points on her final shot. But her opponent could only manage a 9, handing her the gold medal. Suruchi scored a total of 239.8 points while Lakshita ended with 239.3 points. Delhi’s Saina Bharwani took home the bronze with a score of 219.1 points.

In Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu basketball teams completed the double by winning both the girls' and boys' finals. In the girls' final, the hosts defeated Punjab 70-66 before the boys got the better of Rajasthan 86-85.