ISSF World Cup: Sonam finishes fighting fifth as Indian conclude campaign with one gold

New Delhi, Apr 12 (IANS) Sonam Uttam Maskar finished a fighting fifth in the women’s 10m air rifle final as India concluded their International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol campaign in Granada, Spain, with a tally of one gold medal.  

Sonam shot 188.5 to bow out after the 18th shot of the 24-shot final, 0.8 behind her nearest rivals at that stage, among them world number one and eventual gold medalist Wang Zifei of China who finished with 252.9 points. Women’s 3P world champion Jeanette Hegg Duestad of Norway won silver with 252.4, while former air rifle world champion Han Jiayu of China won bronze with 231.5.

India, who had majorly fielded shooters ranked between 4-6 in the domestic rankings in the year’s opening world cup leg, made as many as seven finals, but only the 10m air pistol pairing of Mukesh Nelavalli and Palak shot gold on the opening day of competitions. They finished third on the leaderboard with China topping it with eight golds and 13 medals.

Sonam had shot 632.8 in the first qualification relay of the women’s 10m air rifle to qualify in seventh place for the final. Mehuli Ghosh with a 627.3 placed 44th and Shruti, the third Indian in the field, shot 624.8 to take 63rd place in the 91-strong field. 

As far as RPO (ranking points only) shooters were concerned, Narmada Nithin Raju shot 629.0 while Rajshree Sancheti shot 628.1.

Sonam, began the final with a strong 10.6 but followed that up with a 9.8, which could have eventually cost her a podium finish in the end calculations given the high quality final.

She did well to save herself from elimination thrice, a perfect 10.9 on her 14th being the high point of her fight. In the end, Sonam, seeking a second world cup individual medal, left too much to recover and despite a 10.5 to close, fell short.

Earlier in the first event of the day, Niraj Kumar shot 589 in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions (3P) qualification round, while Akhil Sheoran shot 588 to finish 15th and 22nd respectively. Chain Singh had been unable to make it past elimination on Saturday itself.

--IANS

hs/