Indian juniors bag three more gold in World Championship

Indian juniors won three gold medals in air rifle and air pistol team events to swell the tally to eight gold in the shooting World Championship in Cairo, Egypt, on Tuesday.

India was second on the medals table with eight gold, three silver and seven bronze medals behind China’s 18 gold, 11 silver and 7 bronze.

The Indian teams were dominant in air rifle, winning both the junior men and women events, beating China 17-11 and 16-2 respectively.

The junior men’s team of Sri Karthik Sabari Raj, Divyansh Singh Panwar and Vidit Jain led at every stage while Tilottama Sen, Nancy and Ramita Jindal were dominant right through in the women’s event.

The junior women’s team of Shikha Narwal, Esha Singh and Varsha Singh won the air pistol gold, beating China 16-6 after the latter was marginally ahead in the second stage of qualification.

There was also a bronze medal in rapid fire pistol junior men’s team event, as Sameer Ghulia, Udhayveer Sidhu and Adarsh Singh beat Italy 16-2. China and Korea won the gold and silver respectively.

In the 50m free pistol, Arjun Singh Cheema shot 557 and missed the bronze by three points. Omkar Singh shot 550 for the 14th spot.

In 50m rifle prone event, Swapnil Kusale (621.4), Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (619.8) and Niraj Kumar (614.7) finished 32nd, 38th and 65th respectively.

The Indian teams had qualified for both the gold and bronze medal matches in rapid fire junior mixed team competition.

The results: Air rifle junior men’s team: 1. India (Sri Karthik Sabari Raj, Divyansh Singh Panwar, Vidit Jain) 17 (626.8) 937.9; 2. China 11 (625.8) 937.4; 3. USA 17 (620.2) 933.1; 4. Austria 7 (618.4) 927.7.

Air rifle junior women’s team: 1. India (Tilottama Sen, Nancy, Ramita Jindal) 16 (627.6) 941.5; 2. China 2 (626.2) 939.8; 3. Finland 17 (624.9) 931.6; 4. Norway 9 (625.4) 935.8.

Air pistol junior women’s team: 1. India (Shikha Narwal, Esha Singh, Varsha Singh) 16 (576) 855; 2. China 6 (578) 855; 3. Korea 16 (569) 836; 4. USA 4 (566) 850.

Rapid fire pistol junior men’s team: 1. China 17 (576) 880; 2. Korea 15 (570) 873; 3. India (Sameer Gulia, Udhayveer Sidhu, Adarsh Singh) 16 (562) 877; 4. Italy (Michello Palella, Matteo Mashovalerio, Luca Arrighi) 2 (540) 850.