Indian male air pistol shooters falter in ISSF World Cup

Indian shooters continued to falter in the ISSF World Cup (rifle/pistol) here with the trio of Samrat Rana, Amit Sharma and Nishant Rawat failing to make the men’s 10m air pistol final in the face of China’s dominance on Wednesday.

Samrat, the 20-year-old former junior world championship gold medallist in team events, was the best Indian performer, finishing 10^th in qualification with a below-par score of 582.

Hu Kai of China shot 589 to top the preliminary round. He then went on to win the gold with a score of 242.3. China’s You Changjie took the silver with a score of 241.5.

China thus took their medals’ tally to four, with two gold and silver each. India, on the other hand, are yet to open their account.

Another Indian youngster Amit Sharma, who had finished 11^th in the 10m air pistol mixed team pairing with Surbhi Rao on Tuesday, ended up 28^th with a score of 576, while Nishant Rawat was further down at 42^nd with a tally of 568.

India’s Divya Subbaraju did well in the precision round of 25m pistol to be placed seventh in a field of 37 shooters with a score of 291.

Divya had rounds of 97, 94 and 100 and will be in contention for a place in the final on Thursday when the rapid round is held.

The other Indian Abhidnya Patil is placed 19^th (288), while Commonwealth and Asian Games gold-medallist Rahi Sarnobat was 26^th with a score of 286.