ISSF World Juniors: Adarsh Singh wins 25m RFP silver, India win 2 more medals


ISSF World Juniors: Adarsh Singh wins 25m RFP silver, India win 2 more medals

Adarsh Singh

India won three more medals including a gold from the ongoing ISSF World Junior Championships held in Lima, Peru. Adarsh Singh won a silver from the Olympic 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event. The other two medals came from the non-Olympic team events.

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Manu Bhaker won her 4th gold of the tournament while Naamya Kapoor and Rhythm Sangwan won their second as India won the Women’s 25m Pistol Team gold medal.

India’s first medal from trap came via the Men’s Trap team of Shardul Vihan, Bakhtyaruddin Malek and Vivaan Kapoor who lost to Italy in the finals.

Men’s 25m RFP: Adarsh Singh only Indian medalist

Adarsh Singh won silver
Adarsh Singh won silver

Adarsh Singh won the biggest medal of the day from an Indian Olympic perspective. Adarsh was in the lead after a perfect first and second series in the 25m RFP finals. He however subsequently ceded ground to the USA’s Henry Leverett. The two were in a close battle up to the penultimate series in which Leverett got the decisive advantage that continued into the final round.

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Adarsh finished with a score of 28 compared to Leverett’s 32. Bronze was won by France’s Laurent Cussigh.

The other two Indians in the finals, twins Vijayveer and Udhayveer Sidhu never got into any momentum and were eliminated 5th and 6th respectively.

Qualifications were a low-scoring affair. 579-18x by Germany’s Fabian Otto was the highest in the field. Udhayveer, Adarsh and Vijayveer were the final three to qualify with scores of 577, 574 and 572 respectively.

2018 Commonwealth Games Champion Anish Bhanwala finished 10th with a score of 562. Another Indian Agneya Kaushik was 12th with 560.

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Women’s 25m Pistol Team: India win gold

Indian Women's 25m Pistol team
Indian Women’s 25m Pistol team

The Indian team of Manu, Naamya and Rhythm thoroughly proved their favourites tag going into the Women’s 25m Pistol Team finals. The trio, who each placed in the top four in the individual finals, defeated Team USA (Abbie Leverett, Katelyn Abeln, Ada Korkhin) by a considerable margin of 16-4.

France defeated Ukraine 17-7 in the bronze match.

Manu finished the tournament with 5 medals including 4 golds. These would offer some consolation after the Olympic debacle though she would be aiming for an encore on the senior international stage. For Naamya and Rhythm this tournament could prove to be a stepping stone for bigger things.

Trap

A spirited Indian team of Shardul, Bakhtyar and Vivaan lost 4-6 to favourites Italy comprising of Samuele Faustinelli, Lorenzo Franquillo and Fabio Fiandri in the Men’s Trap finals.

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Both teams were tied at 4-4 before the final round. The Indians could only manage to hit 5 targets in the decider and conceded the gold to the Italians.

Bronze went to Slovakia who beat USA 6-2.

This silver was India’s first trap medal from the tournament.

The women’s trap team of Kirti Gupta, Aadya Tripathi and Divya Singh lost 2-6 to Germany in the bronze match. USA beat Italy 6-4 for the gold in the Women’s Trap finals.

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Earlier no Indian made it to individual trap finals. Vivaan Kapoor, who just missed out at 7th place, was the highest finishing Indian.

Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions

In contrast to Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar’s record-breaking run in Men’s event, no Indian could qualify for the finals in Women’s 50m Rifle 3P. Ashi Chouksey (1164) was the highest-placing Indian at 11th. The qualification cut-off was 1170.

France’s Julia Canestrelli both topped the qualifications with 1178-64x and won the gold medal with a score of 455.7. Hungary’s Eszter Meszaros and USA’s Mary Tucker were 2nd and 3rd respectively.

With three more days remaining for the conclusion of the ISSF World Juniors, India lead the medal tally with 9 golds and 20 medals. USA are second with 6 golds and 17 medals.

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