File photo of Olympian Sift Kaur Samra. Samra, Anjum Moudgil and Ashi Chouksey won the women’s 50m rifle 3-positions team gold at the Asian Championships in Shymkent.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
Olympian Sift Kaur Samra made it a memorable day for India, clinching the individual women’s 50m rifle 3 positions gold and helping the country to the team title as well in the Asian Shooting Championships in Shymkent on Tuesday (August 26, 2025).
World record holder Samra fired a superb 459.2 in the final to beat China’s Yang Yujie (458.8) for gold, while the trio of Samra, stalwart Anjum Moudgil and Ashi Chouksey also bagged the top podium with an aggregate of 1753 points.
This was Samra’s fourth Asian Championships gold, and she was in a different zone altogether in the event as she qualified for the eight-shooter final placed No.1 with a score of 589.
Another Indian, Shriyanka Sadandi, who had topped the qualification round was not eligible for the final as she was competing for ‘Ranking Points Only’ (RPO).
RPO shooters cannot compete for medals.
Samra had scores of 151.0, 156.2 in the kneeling and prone positions. In the standing-elimination round, she was simply unbeatable and led till the end despite a late fightback by her Chinese rival, who finished just 0.4 points behind the Indian.
Japan’s Nobata Misaki (448.2) took the bronze.
Chouksey, who had entered the final placed fourth, ended up seventh with 402.8 points.
Senior pro and two-time Olympian Anjum finished 22nd in a high-class field of 41 shooters.
Samra led from the front in the team event as well as she guided India to the gold medal along with Anjum and Ashi.
While Samra fired a superb 589, Ashi shot 586, and Anjum managed 578 as the trio clinched the top spot ahead of Japan, who totalled 1750 and South Korea (1745).
On Monday, National Games champion Neeru Dhanda enjoyed one of her finest days in the sport en route to winning the women’s trap gold medal.
Published – August 26, 2025 03:12 pm IST