NEW DELHI, March 25: India’s terrific trio of Chinky Yadav, Manu Bhaker and Rahi Sarnobat claimed the team gold medal in the women’s 25m pistol event of the ISSF shooting World Cup here on Thursday as the host nation carried on its unhindered run at the top of the table.
The Indian trio shot a total of 17 to beat Poland’s Joanna Iwona Wawrzonowska, Julita Borek and Agnieszka Korejwo who managed to score 7 at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range.
The team gold comes only a day after Yadav, Bhaker and Sarnobat swept the individual final by winning all the medals on offer on Wednesday.
The victory in this event consolidated India’s position in the top of the pecking order with 21 medals, including 10 gold, six silver and five bronze.
Earlier in the day, India’s Anjum Moudgil, Shreya Saksena and Gaayathri Nithyanadam claimed the silver medal in the 50m rifle 3 positions team event.
The Indian rifle team shot 43 in the gold medal showdown to finish behind the Polish team, which scored 47 to grab the top prize.
They had scored 1304 and 864 in the first and second qualifying rounds respectively.
The Polish rifle team comprised Aneta Stankiewicz, Aleksandra Szutko and Natalia Kochanska.
The bronze medal went to the Indonesian team consisting of Vidya Rafika Rahmatan Toyyiba, Monica Daryanti and Audrey Zahra Dhiyaanisa, who beat the Hungarian troika of Lalita Gaspar, Eszter Denes and Lea Horvath 47-43
50m rifle final postponed
The gold medal contest between India and Hungary in the 50m rifle 3 positions men’s team event of the ISSF World Cup here was on Thursday postponed after the visiting team pulled out following an internal dispute with its star marksman Peter Sidi.
The gold medal round will now take place on Friday between hosts India and third-placed team USA in what seems to be an unprecedented development in the marquee event.
India and Hungary, who had finished in first and second place in the qualification round on Wednesday, turned up for their gold medal match, scheduled to begin at 11 am, but the visiting team’s world number one shooter Istvan Peni and Zavan Pekler, after a discussion with the technical officials, refused to participate alongside Sidi.
The 42-year-old Sidi is a five-time Olympian and former world champion, having won the gold medal at the 2010 world championships in Munich.
“The Hungarian team has revolted against Sidi,” an insider involved with the ongoing tournament told PTI.
“They say he is pushing the rules. It is an internal problem within the Hungarian shooting team and has been going on for the last four-five years, more so in the last one year, including last year’s national championship,” he added.
According to the source, the whole issue was over a bipod that Sidi had attached to the end of his rifle barrel.
Sidi contended that he was using the two-legged stand for weight balancing, which is in sync with the ISSF rule book, and not to stabilise the rifle during competition, which is not technically allowed, but Peni and his other teammate objected to it.
The source said the ISSF did not find anything wrong with Sidi after the matter was reported to the apex body’s technical delegate.
In Wednesday’s qualification, the Indian team of Niraj Kumar, Swapnil Kusale and Chain Singh led the field with an aggregate score of 875.
The Hungary team, comprising Peni, Pekler and Sidi, was placed second, while the American trio of Nickolaus Mowrer, Timothy Sherry and Patrick Sunderman was third.
The fourth team, Kenya, did not start. (PTI)
