New Delhi, Jul 16 (PTI) Talented shooters Shubham Bisla and Sainyam gave India a golden start at the ISSF World Junior Championship, winning the men’s and women’s 10m Air Pistol competitions in Changwon, Korea here on Sunday.
While it was Shubham’s first gold at the ISSF junior level, Sainyam backed up her win in the Suhl Junior World Cup last month, with an encore in Changwon.
India, as a result, won both golds on offer on day one of the competitions and were comfortably leading the medal tally.
Shubham was the first to fire for India when he shot 244.6 in the men’s air pistol final, leaving China’s Bu Shuaihang, who shot 239.6, way behind.
Korea’s Kim Kanghyun won bronze with 218.2.
Earlier, Shubham had shot 578 to qualify in second place behind Bu, who topped the qualification charts with a 585.
Amit Sharma (576) and Sagar Bhargava (575) also made it to the top eight for India, grabbing the sixth and eighth qualifying spots. Amit finished fifth and Sagar fourth, eventually.
Sainyam was also in a league of her own in the women’s final, shooting 242.2 to the silver winning Korean Oh Ye Jin’s 239.4.
China’s Yao Qianxun was third with 218.6.
Two Indians had made the cut in this final. Sainyam, who shot 576 in qualification, took the fifth qualifying spot, while Urva Chaudhary was sixth with the same score with lesser inner 10s than Sainyam.
Urva narrowly missed out on a medal, finishing fourth eventually with a score of 198.1.
Monday will see two more finals — the 10m Air Rifle and Air Pistol Mixed Team. The all-events Junior World Championships conclude on July 25.
Tondaimn wins bronze at Lonato Shotgun World Cup =============================== Prithviraj Tondaiman clinched a bronze in the men’s Trap event as the ISSF Shotgun World Cup concluded in Lonato, Italy, on Sunday.
This was his second individual World Cup bronze, after breaking through in Doha earlier this year and India’s only medal of the Lonato World Cup stage.
He shot 34, to bow out in third place after 40-targets. Great Britain’s Nathan Hales won the 50-shot final with a score of 49, while China’s Qi Ying took silver with 48-hits.
Coming ahead of the World Championships next month in Baku which has 48 Paris 2024 Olympics quotas to offer, Prithviraj said, “It could have been better but I am happy. It’s great confidence before the World Championship.” In the final, Prithviraj had to narrowly survive three elimination stages to win bronze. The first was after 25-shots, when Briton Aaron Heading bowed out with 20-hits, with Prithviraj managing 21. Then after 30-targets, Turkey’s Tolga Tuncer managed 24-hits to the Indian’s 25 to finish fourth.
Then finally after 35-targets, Czech Republic’s Pavel Vanek missed his final two shots to tie with Prithviraj at 30-hits, but the Indian’s superior bib number meant the podium finish would be his.
Two other Indians in the competition were Bhowneesh Mendiratta and Zoravar Singh Sandhu.
Bhowneesh, who won a quota in Men’s Trap at the World Championships last year, shot 120 in qualification to finish 14th while Zoravar was 53rd with a score of 115.
Indian women missed out on finals qualifying with Shreyasi Singh emerging as the best Indian on show.
She shot 111 for a 32nd place finish, while Manisha Keer also shot the same score for a 35th place finish. Rajeshwari Kumari with 106, was further back in 52nd spot.
Source: PTI News
