-Europe’s dominance continues
-New Delhi on the second day of the ISSF World Cup final.
New Delhi, 16 October (Hindustan Reporter). Akhil Sheoran won a bronze medal in the men’s 50 m rifle 3 positions (3P), the first World Cup final medal of his career. At the same time, Ganemat Sekhon set a new national record in women’s skeet. On the other hand, European countries continued their dominance on the second day of the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Final Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun New Delhi 2024. These matches are being played at Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range (DKSSR).
After Akhil’s achievement, India now has two medals in the concluding event of this year’s ISSF, with one more competition day left. On the first day, Sonam Uttam Masker had won the silver medal in women’s air rifle.
The ISSF Shooting World Cup Final is being telecast live on Eurosport India and can also be live streamed on ISSF’s official YouTube channel and Sportscast’s YouTube channel.
Akhil’s brilliant performance
Akhil Sheoran, an experienced player who has won medals at every level of ISSF till now, did not have only a World Cup Final medal in his name, which he achieved in spectacular fashion in DKSSR. Coming back from mid-table in the final standings, they gave the home crowd something to cheer about.
Earlier in the day, Railways-bound Akhil qualified for the eight-player final in sixth position with 589 points. He was left behind by his senior colleague Chen Singh, who finished fourth by scoring 590 marks.
After the 15-kneeling positions in the first of 45 shots of the final, the two Indian players were ranked sixth and seventh. However, Akhil performed brilliantly in the second prone position and reached the third position, where he faced Jiri Privatsky of Czech Republic, who later won the silver medal.
Hungary’s star player Istvan Penny held the lead from the start and opened up a 4.1-point lead over Kazakhstan’s shooter Konstantin Malinovsky, who was in second place after 40 shots.
Akhil consistently scored mid-to-high 10s in his strong standing positions and as Chen finished seventh after the 40th shot, the race for the bronze medal included the Indian, Privatsky, Chinese Olympic champion Liu Yukun and Malinowski.
Malinowski scored 9.2 in the 41st shot and Liu trailed Akhil by 0.2 points after the 42nd shot. Akhil secured the medal with scores of 10.7 and 10.4. He scored 10.7 in the 43rd shot, but could not bridge the gap of 0.9 points from Privatsky and settled for the bronze medal.
Ganemat made national record
In women’s skeet shooting, Ganemat Sekhon made it to her second consecutive World Cup final and broke the national record. His qualification score was 122, which he achieved in two days and was two points better than his previous record.
She finished second in the shoot-off of 56 shots, where American Dania Jo Vizzi pushed her into third place. Former Olympic champion Diana Bacossi of Italy finished first in the group of 11 players with 124 points.
Other Indians who qualified for the finals, which will be contested on Thursday, were Vivaan Kapoor (120 points, third place) in men’s trap, Anantjit Singh Naruka (121 points, fifth place) and Mairaj Ahmed Khan (119 points, sixth place) ) in men’s skeet. Maheshwari Chauhan (117 points, eighth place).
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Hindusthan News / Akash Kumar Rai
