ISSF World Cup
NINGBO, (China) Sep 11: Indian shooters’ medal-less campaign in the ISSF World Cup here continued on Thursday with the likes of Divyansh Singh Panwar, Umamahesh Maddineni and Rahi Sarnabot bowing out in the qualifications.
Italy’s Danilo Sollazzo, who finished second behind India’s Rudrankksh Patil in the Cairo World Championship in 2022 and was fifth in the Paris Olympics last year, shattered the men’s 10m air rifle finals world record on competition day three of the rifle/pistol World Cup stage in the Chinese city.Danilo shot 255.0 in the men’s air rifle final to relegate the home favourite, reigning Olympic champion and the very man whose record he broke, Sheng Lihao, to silver. Danilo shattered the Chinese ace’s record by 0.5 points.Sheng shot 253.5 in the final while Korean Park Haijun won bronze.Indian shooters meanwhile, despite some solid performances, were still searching for a first final appearance in the tournament.India’s former world number one Divyansh shot 630.0 in qualification to finish 19th. Sweden’s Paris silver medallist Victor Lindgren took the final qualifying spot with 632.3. Among other Indian aspirants, young Umamahesh finished 39th overall with 627.7, while Niraj Kumar was further back in 54th with 626.1.
In the first final of the day, Korea’s pair of reigning women’s pistol Olympic champions Yang Jiin and Oh Yejin ruled the roost, with Yang taking gold in the 25m pistol, the event she won in Paris, with compatriot Oh winning silver ahead of China’s Xiao Jiaruixuan.
Korean Nam Dajung who took the eighth and final qualifying spot, also shot 583 as did France’s Paris silver medallist in the event Camille Jedrzejewski, but the Korean went through with three shots more than the Indian in the inner 10 ring.
Divya T.S shot a 290 in rapid-fire to end 16th with a total of 581, while Olympian and former Asian Games champion Sarnobat was a spot behind on the same score, a brilliant 295 in rapid-fire making up for the lower tally in the precision round on Wednesday.China are leading the medal tally with two gold medals, followed by Norway, Italy and Korea. (PTI)