Sonam Maskar wins air rifle silver in World Cup Final
Huang – who had won the individual silver and the mixed gold in the Paris Games – had to shoot a world record 254.5 to deny the Indian a better medal
On the podium: Sonam, champion Huang and Oceanne.
| Photo Credit: Kamesh Srinivasan
Sonam Maskar hoisted the Indian flag by winning the women’s air rifle silver behind Olympic champion Huang Yuting of China in the shooting World Cup Final at the Dr. Karni Singh Range Tughlakabad, on Tuesday.
The 22-year-old Sonam qualified strong with 632.1 and showed remarkable assurance in front of the packed crowd while delivering a medal for the host. Huang – who had won the individual silver and the mixed gold in the Paris Games – had to shoot a world record 254.5 to deny the Indian a better medal.
Sonam was one of the four Indian shooters to get direct entry for the championship as she had won the individual and mixed silver medal in the Cairo World Cup earlier in the season.
Tilottama Sen also made the final, but was struggling to find her rhythm and ended up sixth, one spot ahead of Anna Janssen of Germany who shot a qualification world record of 636.9.
Sonam’s start looked to have inspired the Indian team which looked to deliver more medals through the day, but the podium finishes kept slipping away, perhaps because the shooters were feeling the pressure in front of the adoring fans.
Babuta falters
Arjun Babuta looked all set to win the gold in men’s air rifle, as he built a commanding lead after 14 shots in the final. His lead reduced after two more shots, and he fell to fifth place following shots of 10.1 and 9.8.
The ghosts of Paris, where he had finished fourth after leading in the final seemed to haunt Babuta.
The other finalist, former world No. 1 Divyansh Singh Panwar, slipped to the eighth place.
Sheng Lihao of China, the double Olympic champion in Paris, beat Istvan Peni by 0.1 point for the gold.
In women’s air pistol, Rhythm Sangwan and Surbhi Rao looked set for a medal, before they shot the 8s to finish fourth and fifth respectively.
In men’s air pistol, Arjun Singh Cheema made the final, but his first shot of 7.1 threw him out of the race for a medal. Varun Tomar missed making the final by two points.
In the men’s trap, Vivaan Kapoor (73) and Bhowneesh Mendiratta (72) did well to stay in the race for the final after three rounds.
In women’s skeet, Ganemat Sekhon (74) was one point behind the leader Samantha Simonton of USA, while Anantjeet Singh Naruka (73) was in the third place in men’s skeet .
Two more rounds will be shot on Wednesday in the shotgun events, and the finals will be held on Thursday.
China was on top of the medals table with three gold, and was followed by France with one gold and a bronze. India was joint third with Germany, Hungary and Taiwan, with a silver medal.
The results: 10m air rifle: Men: 1. Sheng Lihao (Chn) 251.4 (631.6); 2. Istvan Peni (Hun) 251.3 (629.2); 3. Jiri Privratsky (Cze) 229.8 (631.3); 5. Arjun Babuta 188.3 (631.6); 8. Divyansh Singh Panwar 124.0 (631.2).
Women: 1. Huang Yuting (Chn) 254.4 (WR) 633.3; 2. Sonam Maskar 252.9 (632.1); 3. Oceanne Muller (Fra) 231.1 (634.0); 6. Tilottama Sen 167.7 (628.9).
10m air pistol: Men: 1. Xie Yu (Chn) 244.6 (588); 2. Robin Walter (GEr) 243.3 (579); 3. Federico Maldini (Ita) 221.7 (579); 8. Arjun Singh Cheema 109.9 (580); 10. Varun Tomar 575.
Women: 1. Camille Jedrzejewski (Fra) 240.8 (575); 2. Heng Yu Liu (Tpe) 237.4 (571); 3. Hala Elgohari (Egy) 215.7 (571); 4. Rhythm Sangwan 197.2 (579); 5. Surbhi Rao 176.6 (574).
Published – October 15, 2024 07:23 pm IST
Read Comments
- Copy link
- Telegram
READ LATER
Remove
SEE ALL
PRINT