World Cup: Gagan finishes 7th in 50m rifle prone

Baku (Azerbaijan), June 26 

London Olympics bronze medallist Gagan Narang finished seventh in the men’s 50m rifle prone event on Day Five of the sixth and final ISSF World Cup here today. Narang reached his second World Cup final in four days and fifth final in the event in the last two years — he has picked just one medal, a bronze, from these outings.

His score of 621.1 in the qualifying round was below his best but enough to get him another World Cup final match-up before the Rio Olympics. 

Narang started the final on a positive note, taking the second spot after the first series of three shots. He was in the fourth place till the eighth shot but a 9.9 in his ninth shot saw him bow out of the final.

The gold in the event went to Denmark’s Torben Grimmel, who picked up his third gold of the year in the event. Kenneth Parr of Germany won the silver and Petar Gorsa of Croatia took the bronze.

Sanjeev Rajput, the second Indian in the men’s 50m prone, finished 14th with an overall qualifying score of 617.6.

In the day’s other medal event, India’s Gurpreet Singh shot a score of 569 in the qualifying round of the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol to finish at 26th spot.

Indian shooters have reached six finals at the World Cup, but only Jitu Rai has been able to win a medal so far — a silver in the men’s 10m air pistol. — PTI