New Delhi, April 22 (IANS) The Indian shooting team ended third in the standings as the Peru International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup wrapped up proceedings, with Australia taking the final gold on offer in the mixed team trap event.
Two Indian pairs Prithviraj Tondaiman/Pragati Dubey and Lakshay Sheoran/Neeru finished eighth and 12th respectively with scores of 134 and 128 out of 150 targets, in qualification respectively. As China topped the tally with four gold, three silver, and six bronze medals, the USA came in second with a silver and five bronze medals less than the first-placed. India’s final tally read two gold, four silver and a lone bronze won by Saurabh Chaudhary in the men’s air pistol.
Earlier in the day, Simranpreet Kaur Brar had won silver in the women’s 25m pistol, to give India their seventh medal and a fourth silver of the competition.
India will take a lot of positives from the double-legged South American World Cup leg, which kickstarted the new international season. In the previous Argentina World Cup, India had finished second to China with a haul of four gold, two silver, and two bronze medals.
“A lot of young and talented shooters like Suruchi, Arya, and Bhavtegh, played their first senior world cups on this tour. Overall, as well, it was a young squad, and the exposure of going halfway around the world into alien conditions, adapting to the surroundings, and the ranges, and then bringing out your best for India, will be an experience that will hold them in good stead.
“Remember, the next LA Olympics will be a similar experience. Having said that, given the quality of competition, the squad as they have been doing generally over the years, performed splendidly. We heartily congratulate the entire squad, including the hard-working coaches and support staff, for flying the country’s flag high once again on the global stage,” said an elated K. Sultan Singh, Secretary General, National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).
Indian shooters reached a total of 32 finals, including medal matches in the mixed events, and returned with 15 medals including six gold. The 18-year-old Suruchi was the most successful, bringing home three gold and one bronze medal, the NRAI said in a release.
Along with Chinese teenager and rifle shooter Wang Zifei of China, Suruchi was undoubtedly the star of the two World Cup legs.
Arya Borse was the other World Cup debutant to shine, making it to three finals and returning with two silver medals in the mixed-team rifle event.
Besides the debutants, the seasoned Chain Singh and Simranpreet also won their first individual World Cup medals and Paris Olympians Shriyanka Sadangi and Raiza Dhillon picked up the valuable first-ever experience of competing in an individual World Cup final.
Some shooters like former world champion Rudrankksh Patil (one gold, two silver), Vijayveer Sidhu (gold in rapid-fire pistol in Argentina), Sift Kaur Samra (gold in 50m rifle 3 positions in Argentina), Arjun Babuta (silver in men’s air rifle in Peru) and Esha Singh (silver in women’s 25m pistol in Argentina), besides double Olympic medalist Manu Bhaker (silver in women’s air pistol in Lima-her sixth individual World Cup medal), further enhanced their stature as accomplished and world-class internationals and will take a lot of confidence away from the tour.
The most heartening aspect of the tour for fans of the sport in India however, was the return to the podium at the international level by Saurabh Chaudhary, a former youth Olympic and Asian Games champion and a former world record holder and world number one. He won a fifth mixed team World Cup gold in Lima alongside new partner Suruchi and a seventh individual World Cup medal as well.
“It gives us immense pleasure to look at the depth we have developed in the sport. There are so many accomplished international shooters who were back home and not part of this tour and still, we have produced such results. This shows that Indian Shooting is moving in the right direction,” Sultan Singh concluded.
The next international assignment will be for the shotgun squad only when the Cyprus Shotgun World Cup begins in the first week of next month in Nicosia.
–IANS
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