Rudranksh won gold in 10m air rifle, Tilottama bronze in women’s category
Defending world champion Rudranksh Patil clinched the gold in the men’s 10m air rifle event while Tilottama Sen continued India’s dominance by winning the bronze in the women’s section of the ISSF Shooting World Cup here on Tuesday. India has now won four medals including three gold in the competition. World No. 1 Rudranksh defeated Germany’s Maximilian Ulbricht 16-8 in the gold medal match. Rudranksh had also topped the ranking round with a score of 262.0 while Ulbricht shot 260.6.
Tilottama finished in the top eight in the ranking round with a score of 262.0 but missed the gold medal match by the narrowest possible margin of 0.1. His medal is India’s second bronze medal in the competition. Seonaid McIntosh of Great Britain defeated Olympic champion Nina Kristen of Switzerland 16–8 in the gold medal match. Earlier, Rudranksh had qualified for the ranking round by finishing seventh in the qualification round with a score of 629.3.
Competing in the men’s 10m air rifle event, other Indian shooters Divyansh Singh Panwar and Hriday Hazarika missed out on making it to the ranking round by a narrow margin. In the ranking round, the top eight qualifiers compete in five series of five shots each to decide the top two shooters who compete for the gold medal. After the first series, veteran shooter Sergei Richter of Israel was on top while Rudranksh was 1.2 points behind him.
Rudranksh came back in the second series and shot a perfect 10.9 in his 10th shot to take the lead for the first time. By the end of the third series, he had a slight lead of 0.2 points over Croatia’s Miran Marisić. Rudraksh took a 1.1 point lead by the end of the fourth series. Richter retained third place. Only four shooters were in the running. World champion Rudranksh shot 262 to top the spot after 25 shots and Ulbricht shot 260.6 to pip Marisich and Richter to take the second spot.
Marisich won the bronze medal with a score of 260.5. The German shooter entered the gold medal match with Rudranksh. The match was tied at 7-7 after the opening seven shots. The Indian shooter, however, won the next three series to take a 13-7 lead. Ulbricht tied the 11th series but Rudranksh won the 12th series to claim the gold medal.
Indian shooters on Monday won gold medals in the mixed team air pistol and rifle events. R Narmada Nitin and Rudranksh won India’s first gold medal in the 10m air rifle mixed team event. Varun Tomar, who won a bronze in the individual event on Sunday, then teamed up with Rhythm Sangwan to win the gold in the 10m air pistol mixed team event.
