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Sift Kaur Samra Breaks World Record, Winning Historic Gold
Sift Kaur Samra, the Indian shooter shattered the World Record and of course, the Asian Games record with her stellar performance in 50-metre rifle shooting. She has effortlessly created history breaking through all possible records laid on her way in the pursuit of the gold medal. She clinched the gold medal in the Women’s 50m rifle 3 position event on Day 4 of the ongoing Asian Games 2023 held in Hangzhou. This is the first individual gold bagged by India at this Games and the fifth one overall. The previous ones came in team events in equestrian, women’s cricket, and shooting. While Sift secured gold, Ashi Chouksey bagged the bronze medal in the same shooting event. With this, the Indian medal tally is currently 18 in the Asaid 2023.
Sift Kaur carried out in style as she claimed the gold by smashing the World Record and other records with her performance for ages to be remembered. The 22-year-old shooter executed an outstanding performance with a total score of 469.6 points after shooting 15 shots for each of the kneeling, prone, and standing positions. The overall score of Sift was 2.6 points higher than the previous world record held by Seonaid McIntosh in Baku earlier this year.
The silver medalist, Qiongyue Zhang managed a total score of 462.3 which is 7.3 less than the score accomplished by Indian shooter Sift Kaur Samra who is at the top. At the last moment, she was able to change the color of her medal as another fellow Indian shooter Ashi Chouksey fumbled with a shocking 8.9 points difference. As a result, Ashi lost the second spot but managed to clinch the bronze medal with a final score of 451.9.
Before the victory in the finals, Sift had broken the Asian Games Qualification record by scoring 594 out of 600 along with Xia Siyu of China, who ended up being on the top by benefits of higher inner scores achieved from shooting closer to the target. Whereas, Chouksey had a score of 590 and qualified in the sixth position. Meanwhile, Manini Kaushik finished in the 18th place with a score of 580 points.
This is Sift’s first gold in her senior competitions. Before that, she had won bronze medals in the ISSF (International Shooting Sport Federation) in the years 2022 and 2023. The only gold medal she secured previously was in the junior cup of ISSF in 2022.
This marked Sift’s second medal in Asian Games 2023 along with Ashi Chouksey. The duo along with Manini Kaushik had won a silver medal in the team event of the same category earlier the same day, that is on 27th September 2023, with an aggregate score of 1764. China won the gold medal.
With this, Sift Kaur Samra became the first Indian athlete to secure an individual gold medal for India in Hangzhou, China. Moreover, it is also the first time that Indian athletes won two medals in a singles event at the Asiad 2023.
