ISSF World Cup: Indian shooters off the mark

Doha, November 22

A medal continued to elude the strong Indian shooting contingent in the elite ISSF World Cup Final with rifle exponents Hriday Hazarika and Elavenil Valarivan finishing seventh in their respective categories here today.

Young skeet shooter Ganemat Sekhon, however, kept the medal hopes alive by finishing second at the end of Day 1 of the qualification.

Hazarika shot a 629.4 in the men’s 10m air rifle qualification round to make it to the final placed eighth. He began the final with a superb 10.6 and aggregated 51.9 after the first five-shot series to be in fifth position. His eighth shot was a brilliant 10.9 but poor scores on the fifth and sixth meant he would slip to seventh after 10 shots.

Hazarika improved to sixth after his 12th shot but German Maximillian Ulbrich outgunned him on the 13th and 14th shots as the Indian bowed out. Zalan Pekler of Hungary won the gold medal.

World champion Rudrankksh Patil could not make it to the eight-shooter final in the event, shooting a subdued 626.1 to finish 13th.

Tokyo Olympian Elavenil also took the eighth and final qualifying spot in women’s 10m air rifle with a score of 630.8.