Indian shooters are on a high at the 52nd International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship in Changwon, Korea. After Saurabh Chaudhary created a sensation with his ‘golden’ world record, 16-year old Hriday Hazarika was crowned junior world champion in the men’s 10m air rifle on Friday, as India picked up four more medals on day six of the competition.
India’s medal tally is now 18, including six gold. This is now thrice the tally of the six medals won at the 49th edition in Zagreb, Croatia -- India’s previous best performance at the World Championship.
In the junior men’s 10m air rifle, Hriday was the only Indian among three to qualify for the eight-man final, shooting a solid 627.4 points in qualification to make it in the sixth spot. In the 24-shot final, Hriday started with a brilliant 10.8, but a couple of hits in the 9-ring placed him fourth after the first two five shot series.
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As the individual shots began, Hriday strung together a fantastic series of high 10s and by the end of the 20thshot, was leading the field by 0.5. He held on to the lead till the 22nd shot from Iranian Amir Mohammad Nekounam. Then a 9.4 for his 23rd shot meant that at the end of the allotted 24-shots both Hriday and Amir found themselves tied at 250.1 points each. The final went to a shoot-off and Hriday prevailed with a 10.3 to the Iranian’s 10.2. Russia’s Grigorii Shamakov won the Bronze with 228.6.
India’s second gold of the day came in the 10m air rifle women junior team competition where Elavenil Valarivan, Shreya Agrawal and Manini Kaushik combined to shoot a junior world record score of 1880.7.
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Elavenil also won the individual silver in the event, going down narrowly to China’s double senior ISSF World Cup gold medallist Shi Mengyao, in the final. Elavenil shot 249.8 to Shi’s 250.5. Shreya Agrawal, 17, won the bronze with an effort of 228.4 in the final. The Indian duo had earlier topped the 60-shot qualification round. Elavenil was top with a score of 631 while Shreya came in second with 628.5.
In the women’s 25m pistol, teenager Manu Bhaker was the best placed Indian after the first precision stage of qualification, shooting a very good 294 out of 300 to be among the joint top four scores. Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat was lying 27th with 289 while Asiad Bronze medalist Heena Sidhu shot 284 to be in 61st position. Saturday will see the second rapid fire qualification stage preceded by the final.
At the end of day six, India were placed second on the medals table just below hosts Korea. So far, India have won six gold, seven silver and five bronze medals.
Other India Results of the Day:
Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions
- Akhil Sheoran shot 1167 in qualification to finish 44th
- Swapnil Kusale shot 1161 in qualification to finish 55th
- Sanjeev Rajput shot 1158 in qualification to finish 58th
- Team finished 11th
Trap Mixed Team
- Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Seema Tomar shot 140 to finish 12th
- Lakshay Sheoran and Shreyasi Singh shot 138 to finish 16th
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10m Air Rifle Men Junior
- Divyansh Singh Panwar shot 624.9 in qualification to finish 11th
- Arjun Babuta shot 620.1 in qualification to finish 24th
- Team finished fourth with a combined score of 1872.3
10m Air Rifle Women Junior
- Manini Kaushik shot 621.2 to finish 33rd
