India at shooting world cup: disappointment on opening day, hopes rest on 50m rifle | Sport-others News

The much-awaited return of Saurabh Chaudhary did not go as planned as the shooter was unable to qualify for the 10m air pol final of the year’s first World Cup in Buenos Aires on Thursday.
Two Indian shooters, Varun Tomar and Ravinder Singh, qualified for the final but finished outside the medals at the Tiro Federal Argentino shooting range. The duo qualified in seventh and eighth positions with identical scores of 580, Ravinder a spot ahead on more shots in the inner-10 ring.
Ravinder was in medal contention in the initial stages of the eight-man, 24-shot final but could not consently find the bullseye and bowed out in sixth place. Tomar, who started slow, recovered in the later stages but it wasn’t enough as he was eliminated after the 18th shot at fifth place.
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Chaudhary, competing in his first international competition after two years, began with a low series of 94 and never really recovered from the poor start. And even though he tried to make a strong back, scoring 98 each in the second and sixth series, he managed to finish 18th out of 46 shooters with a total of 577.
The gold medal, expectedly, was pocketed China’s Hu Kai. Russia’s Anton Ararkhov, competing as a neutral, won the silver while Switzerland’s Jason Solari finished with a bronze.
There wasn’t a lot to cheer for from the shotgun ranges either as Raiza Dhillon squandered a perfect start to end the first day of qualifying in the skeet competition at the 10th spot.
Dhillon began with a flawless first series, where she nailed each of the 25 clay birds with utmost precision. However, she could not build on that start as she dropped three shots in the second round to fall outside the final qualification cutoff.
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After a disappointing first day, India will be hoping to bag its first medal of the World Cup on Friday, when two more finals will take place in the men’s and women’s 50m rifle 3 positions.
India has a strong presence in both events, with three shooters in each of them. While Olympian Chain Singh, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Niraj Kumar will take aim for the country in the men’s 3P, Olympians Sift Kaur Samra and Shriyanak Sadangi, as well as Ashi Chouksey, will carry India’s hopes in the women’s event.
Manu Bhaker, Simranpreet Kaur Brar and Esha Singh, also compete in the first precision qualification stage of the women’s 25m pol event.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd

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