New Delhi, Oct 16 (IANS) On a day when European nations dominated competition, Akhil Sheoran won the bronze in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions (3P), his first world cup final medal and Ganemat Sekhon set a new national record in women’s skeet, on day two of the on-going International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Final Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun New Delhi 2024, being played here at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range (DKSSR).
Akhil’s effort meant India now have two medals in the annual ISSF season-ender with one more competition day left, given Sonam Uttam Maskar snared the women’s air rifle silver on day one.
A seasoned pro now with ISSF medals at every level, Akhil Sheoran had only the world cup final missing from the bouquet and he did it in style at the DKSSR, orchestrating a now familiar comeback in the final Standing position from mid-table, to bring cheer to the home fans.
Earlier in the day, the railway man had shot a solid 589 to qualify in sixth position for the eight-man final. He was upstaged by senior countryman Chain Singh, whose 590 gave him fourth place in the 12-man field.
Both Indians were lying in the sixth and seventh spots at the end of the first 15-Kneeling position shots of the 45-shot final, however Akhil made his move in the second Prone position coming up to joint third with eventual silver winner Jiri Privratsky of Czechia.
Gold winning Hungarian ace Istvan Peni led from the start and had by then opened up a gap of 4.1 over Kazakh shooter Konstantin Malinovskiy, who held second place till 40-shots.
Akhil came into his own in his strong Standing position, shooting mid to high 10s consistently and as Chain bowed out in seventh after the 40th, the fight for the minor medals lay between the Indian, Privratsky, the Chinese reigning Olympic champion Liu Yukun and Malinovskiy.
Malinovskiy succumbed to a 9.2 for his 41st and Liu fell short of Akhil by 0.2 after the 42nd as the Indian secured the coveted medal with a 10.7 and a 10.4. He settled for bronze as despite a solid 10.7 for his 43rd, the gap of 0.9 with Privratsky was too much to make up.
Trailblazing women’s skeet shooter Ganemat Sekhon, marched to her second successive world cup final over at the DKSSR shotgun ranges, smashing the national record enroute. Her scintillating qualification score of 122 over two days, bettered her own mark by two.
She also came off second best in an epic 56-shot shoot-off to determine placings, qualifying eventually in fourth place as American Dania Jo Vizzi took third. Former Olympic champion Diana Bacosi of Italy topped the 11-strong field with a 124. Other Indians who qualified for finals in Shotgun events, all four of which are scheduled on the final day on Thursday, were Vivaan Kapoor (120, 3rd place) in the men’s trap and Anantjeet Singh Naruka (121, 5th) and Mairaj Ahmad Khan (119, 6th) in the men’s skeet.
Both Maheshwari Chauhan in the women’s skeet and Bhowneesh Mendiratta in the men’s trap finished eighth with a score of 117 in the qualifiers.
European nations dominated the day otherwise, winning three of the four gold medals on offer, with Chinese Olympic and World champion Li Yuehong winning the other, by defending his men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol title in supreme fashion.
Denmark’s Ibsen Rikke Maeng won her country’s and the day’s first gold by clinching the women’s 3P event with a score of 466.2 in the final. Norweigian ace Jeanette Hegg Duestad came second, just 0.6 behind the Dane while China’s Han Jiayu won bronze. Indians Ashi Chouksey and Nishchal finished ninth and 10th with scores of 587 and 585 respectively.
Then after Peni did his thing in the men’s 3P, Germany’s Eder Josefine, pulled off a fine win over France’s Camille Jedrzejewski in the women’s 25m Pistol final. She got 36-hits in the 10-series of five rapid-fire shots each, piping the air pistol winner from Wednesday by a point. China’s Feng Sixuan clinched the bronze, getting the better of India’s Rhythm Sangwan 3-1 in a shoot-off, after both were tied at 27-hits after the eighth series.
Rhythm had earlier reached the final in seventh place with a score of 584 in qualification. Compatriot SImranpreet Kaur Brar finished ahead of her in sixth with 585 and finished in the same position in the final.
Finally, it was the Yuehong show with the Chinese ace leaving no room for doubt after maxing his first five series of rapid-fire shots to take an unassailable lead in the men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol final. He shot 34 out of 40 eventually with German Peter Florian coming in second with 30. China’s Wang Xinjie ensured a double podium for his country, winning third on 23.
China lead the medal tally with four golds and three bronze medals currently with Germany in second with a gold and two silvers, followed by France who have one medal of every colour
–IANS
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