Rajput wins silver in World Cup

Baku (Azerbaijan), June 28 

Sanjeev Rajput shrugged off the disappointment of missing out on the Rio Olympics by bagging the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions silver medal on the concluding day at the ISSF World Cup here today.

This is the 35-year-old shooter’s third World Cup medal and his first in five years. This was also India’s second medal of the competition after Jitu Rai’s silver in the men’s 10m air pistol.

Rajput finished the 120-shot qualifying round in seventh position with a combined score of 1167 to enter the eight-man final. He shot 456.9 in the final to win the silver. Rajput started the 45-shot final round confidently, shooting 153.5 after the first 15 shots in kneeling position to lie second.

By the end of the 15 prone series shots, Rajput slipped to third place. He shot consecutive scores of 10.8 to pull away from his nearest rival Hyeonjun Kim of Korea, who had to settle for the bronze.

The gold medal went to Croatia’s Petar Gorsa, who led throughout in the final, shooting a total of 457.5.

In the men’s skeet, Man Singh overcame one shoot-off to qualify for the six-man final but could not make it to the bronze medal match. He eventually finished sixth.

Man Singh had shot a score of 122 out of 125 in qualifying to be tied fifth with five other shooters. In the shoot-off, he shot a score of 10 to qualify in sixth place.

In the day’s other Indian performances, Gagan Narang ended 23rd in men’s 50m rifle 3 positions with a score of 1161, while Chain Singh shot 1159 to finish 32nd. Nine Indians qualified for the final rounds, a record in a World Cup. — PTI