Abhinav Deshwal won India’s third gold in the ongoing Deaflympics 2021 currently underway in Caxias do Sul, Brazil.
The 14-year-old edged out Oleksii Lazebnyk of Ukraine in a shoot-off in the men’s 10m Air Pistol final to claim the top spot. Abhinav was tied with the Ukrainian at 234.2 after the allotted 24 shots. Deshwal hit 10.3 in the shoot-off while Lazebnyk could manage only 9.7 to settle for a silver. The other Indian in the fray, Shubham Vashist, finished sixth with a score of 152.9.
Deshwal had finished second in the qualification round with a score of 575 (15x). South Korea’s Kim Kihyeon, who finished in the top spot, also scored 575 in the qualification round. The Korean finished higher based on having more inner 10 shots. Kim had 22 inner 10 shots compared to Abhinav’s 15. Shubham Vashist (563) was sixth in the qualification round.
Deshmukh’s gold is India’s 3rd gold medal of the ongoing 2021 Deaflympics. India has so far won 3 gold medals and 2 bronze medals at the quadrennial event.
