Dhanush Srikanth and Priyesha Deshmukh won India’s fourth gold medal in the 10m air rifle mixed team contest at the Deaflympics, held in Caxias do Sul, Brazil.
On day six of the shooting contest, Dhanush and Priyesha defeated the German team 16-10 in the competition for gold. Dhanush comes from Telangana. This gold medal was the second for him; a few days earlier, he had won the separate men’s 10m air rifle. India has three gold medals in shooting, as Abhinav Deshwal won the 10m air pistol shooting competition.
Apart from winning gold, the Indian team have also won two bronze medals in the men’s 10m air rifle and women’s 10m air pistol by Shorurya Saini and Vedika Sharma.
The other Indian pair in the 10m air rifle mixed team competition also won the bronze medal. Still, they lost 8-16 to the Ukrainian duo of Oleksandr Kostyk and Violeta Lykova.
In total, India has won six gold medals so far. Five of them are from shooting, including three golden. The other gold medal is from Badminton.
In the two sequences of shooting, Dhanush and Priyesha gathered 414.0 (209.6+204.4, respectively), overtaking Sabrina Eckert and Sebastian Herrmann from Germany; their total was 408.7. As was said earlier, this is the second time Dhanush has received a gold medal in the Deaflympics: before that, he got the yellow metal on Friday after reaching a world record in the men’s 10m air rifle competition. In the meantime, Priyesha came fourth in the female 10m air rifle competition.
India also has two bronze trophies now, thanks to Shourya Saini in the men’s 10m air rifle and Vedika Sharma in the women’s 10m air pistol, making five medals for shooting alone. Shourya and Natasha Joshi also got to the bronze medal game but then lost 8-16 to the Ukrainian pair of Oleksandr Kostyk and Violeta Lykova.
Dhanush and Priyesha did very well in the qualification round and showed the best results among the eight teams. With a combined effort, they ensured gold, scoring 414.0. The Germans were right behind them with 408.7. Shourya and Natasha were third with 407.4 but were defeated by the Ukrainian pair in the medal round. India had ten shooters in their 65-strong contingent for the Brazil Deaflympics.
Similar to the Olympics, the Deaflympics is held once every four years. It’s a prestigious multi-sports special event meant only for deaf athletes.
The 209 events across 17 sports are held from May 1 to 15. The Games were initially planned to occur in December last year but were delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
India has sent their biggest delegation for the Games this time, with 65 athletes contesting across 11 disciplines, per the Sports Authority of India.
