Commonwealth Games 2018, Gold Coast: Shooter Neeraj Kumar shines in men`s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol

Gold Coast: Indian shooter Neeraj Kumar topped Stage 1 of the qualifying round in the men`s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event at the 21st Commonwealth Games (CWG) in Gold Coast on Thursday.

Neeraj piled up a total of 291 points to claim the pole position ahead of England`s Sam Gowin who registered 287.

Anish, the other in Indian in the fray, scored 286 to take the third spot.

India won one gold and two bronze on the seventh day of the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast on Wednesday. All three medals came in shooting though Shreyasi Singh, Ankur Mittal and Om Prakash Mitherval, taking India's medals tally to 12 gold, four silver and eight bronze.

Check out the overall medals tally here. 

First, Om finished third in men's 50m Pistol event to open India's account with a total of 201.1. Aussie Daniel Repacholi took gold with a new Games record of 227.2 and Shakil Ahmed of Bangladesh took silver with 220.5.

Defending champion and Jitu Rai, the other Indian in the contest, put on view an extremely disappointing performance. Jitu, who had won gold in the 10m Air Pistol on Monday, to everyone's disbelief, registered a lowly 105 to finish at the bottom of the eight-man finals.

Then came the biggest news of the day from an Indian point of view as Shreyasi won gold in women's Double Trap event, which eventually proved to be the country's only gold of the day.

"I'm feeling really well. In 2014, I won the silver and I was really upset that I couldn't win the gold but now, also I was trailing, but when I got the opportunity to fight more and fight harder in the shoot off, I was really happy about that, and I gave it 100 percent," Shreyasi said after her exploits.

Shreyasi shot 96 in the final and beat Australia's Emma Cox 2 shots to 1 in the shoot-off at the Belmont Shooting Centre. The other Indian in the field, Varsha Varman, finished fourth with 86. The bronze medal went to Scotland's Linda Pearson who shot 87 to finish a point ahead of Varsha.

"Emma is, of course, a brilliant competitor to be winning the gold medal against, so lots of wishes to her. She shot really well, too. But I think God is on my side and I'm feeling really lucky," Shreyasi added. 

Lastly, Ankur earned a bronze medal in the men's Double Trap event. Ankur scored 53 points to finish 10 points ahead of compatriot Ashab Mohammed. Scotland's David McMath won gold with 74 points, while silver went to Isle of Man's Tim Kneale (70 points).

Following three medals on Wednesday, India remained third in the medals tally behind leaders Australia and England.