ISSF Shooting World Cup Final: Akhil clinches rifle 3-position bronze; Rhythm finishes fourth

Akhil Sheoran spectacularly rose to third place in the rifle 3-position event in the World Cup Final at the Dr Karni Singh range, Tughlakabad, on Wednesday.

It was the second medal for the host after the silver on the opening day by Sonam Maskar. Incidentally, both Akhil and Sonam were two of the four shooters who had got direct entry into the prestigious championship.

The 29-year-old Akhil finished behind two of the finest rifle shooters in the world, Istvan Peni of Hungary and Jiri Privratsky of the Czech Republic, after having bridged the gap of 0.6 points before the last shot. He had placed fifth last year in the championship in Doha.

Olympian Chain Singh also made the final with an impressive score of 590 but finished seventh.

World record holder Rhythm Sangwan gave herself a chance for a medal in sports pistol, but lost a shoot-off against Camille Jedrejewski of France and Feng Sixuan of China, after being tied on 27 and placed fourth.

Simranpreet Kaur Brar also made the final in which she shot three rounds of perfect-5 but erred in the shoot-off, losing by one point to the eventual gold medallist Josefin Eder of Germany.

The men’s 25-metre rapid-fire pistol shooters, Vijayveer Sidhu (581) and Anish Bhanwala (580) missed the final narrowly.

Similarly, in the women’s rifle 3-position event, Ashi Chouksey missed the final as Xia Siyu of China made it with a better inner-10 score of 31-30 after the two were tied on 587.

In the shotgun events of trap and skeet, which will have the finals on Thursday, Ganemat Sekhon made the women’s skeet final in style by shooting a national record 122 out of 125.

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Vivaan Kapoor made the men’s trap final with the second-best score of 120, behind James Willett (122) of Australia.

Anantjeet Singh Naruka (121) and Mairaj Ahmad Khan (119) made the men’s skeet final.

Shreyasi Singh missed the women’s trap final after a shoot-off, on being tied for the last two spots with three others with a score of 114. It was a commendable fare from her on the second day to shoot 48 out of 50 after having dropped nine birds on the opening day.

China topped the medals table with four gold and three bronze.

Germany, France, Hungary, and Denmark secured the four other gold medals. India was joint sixth with Denmark, with one silver and a bronze.

The results:

Men: 25m rapid fire pistol: 1. Li Yuehong (Chn) 34 (588); 2. Florian Peter (Ger) 30 (587); 3. Wang Xinjie (Chn) 23 (586); 7. Vijayveer Sidhu 581; 9. Anish Bhanwala 580.

50m rifle 3-position: 1. Istvan Peni (Hun) 465.3 (592); 2. Jiri Privratsky (Cze) 464.2 (593); 3. Akhil Sheoran 452.6 (589); 7. Chain Singh 409.3 (590).

Women: 25m sports pistol: 1. Josefin Eder (Ger) 36 (582); 2. Camille Jedrejewski (Fra) 35 (588); 3. Feng Sixuan (Chn) 31 (589); 4. Rhythm Sangwan 27 (584); 6. Simranpreet Kaur Brar 20 (585).

50m rifle 3-position: 1. Rikke Ibsen (Den) 466.2 (590); 2. Jeanette Duestad (Nor) 465.6 (591); 3. Han Jiayu (Chn) 453.7 (593); 9. Ashi Chouksey 587; 10. Nischal 585.