Indian shooters fail to win medals on final day of Baku World Cup
India failed to win a medal on the final day of the ISSSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol as its shooters failed to finish on the podium in men’s rapid fire pistol and women’s rifle 3 positions here on Sunday. India ended their campaign with a total of four medals including one gold, two silver and one bronze. India’s 22-year-old three position shooter Manini Kaushik finished sixth with a score of 415.6. He shot 579 in the qualification round to make it to the eight-man final.
Seoned McIntosh of Great Britain won the gold with a score of 467, while Janet Hague Dusted of Norway came second with a score of 463.6. Germany’s Lisa Müller won the bronze medal with a score of 448.9. Making her debut in the senior World Cup final, Manini was running fifth after the opening 15 shots in the ‘kneeling’ and ‘prone’ positions. The Indian shooters were still in contention for a medal even in the ‘standing’ position after the opening 10 shots when the seventh and eighth places were bars.
India’s Anjum Moudgil shot 573 to finish 18th in the qualification. Sift Kaur Samra shot 571 to finish 21st. Sriyanka Sadangi and Nischal, playing for ranking points, shot 572 and 569 respectively. In the men’s rapid fire pistol, no Indian shooter could make it to the finals. Vijayveer Sidhu and Anish Bhanwala failed to make it to the six-man final with scores of 580 and 579 respectively in the qualification stage two. Vijayveer finished ninth while Anish finished 13th.
Another Indian competing in the event, Ankur Goyal shot 566 to finish 36th. Adarsh Singh and Arpit Goel, playing for ranking points, shot 578 and 564 respectively. China’s two-time Olympic medalist Li Yuhong won the gold, while France’s Clement Basguet and Germany’s Florian Peter finished second and third respectively. China finished on top with four gold, one silver and two bronze medals. The pair of Divya Subbaraju Thadigol and Sarabjot Singh had earlier won India’s only gold medal in the ongoing World Cup in the 10m air pistol mixed team event. Former junior world champion Hriday Hazarika and Haryana’s Nancy won silver medals in men’s and women’s 10m air rifle respectively. Rhythm Sangwan made a comeback in the women’s 10m air pistol event and won a bronze medal.
