India’s Yash Vardhan wins 10m air rifle event in online meet

PTI, Dec 14, 2020, 12:12 PM IST

New Delhi: Junior Asian champion Yash Vardhan of India won the 10-metre air rifle event at the 6th edition of the International Online Shooting Championship (IOSC) on Sunday.

The 17-year-old Yash shot a score of 251.9 to win the title with a margin of 1.2 points.

Yash, who had finished second in the third edition of IOSC, shot the best qualification score of 633.0, just 0.5 point less than the world record.

In the finals, Yash took an early lead after the first ten shots and then completely dominated the finals to claim his first IOSC title.

”It’s really nice and helpful to have these online competitions during these times as it not only helped me gain exposure but also helped me in growing into a better shooter. I am very delighted to see today’s results and will be looking forward to continuing it,” said Yash after his win.

The second place was won by Olympic quota winner Martin Strempfl of Austria with 250.7 while Oleksandr Halkin of Ukraine took the bronze with 229.3.

Shooters from 20 countries took part in the two-day competition organised by former India shooter Shimon Sharif.

”This was the year’s last and the biggest ever among the six editions of IOSC organised by us so far. We had shooters from twenty countries this time. I am happy that online shooting is becoming more and more popular among shooters. This is the future of our sport,” said Sharif.