Shooting World Cup: Rhythm Sangwan gets India off the mark at WC

New Delhi, May 10

Rhythm Sangwan staged a fantastic comeback at the back end of the women’s 10m air pistol final to clinch bronze at the ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Rhythm finished behind two former Olympics champions, gold medal winner Anna Korakaki of Greece and silver medallist Olena Kostevych of Ukraine.

Rhythm’s effort warmed the Indian hearts after Sarabjot Singh and Esha Singh both missed out on medals despite qualifying for the finals in the men’s and women’s 10m air pistol, respectively.

On a day when the ISSF reverted to the Tokyo Olympics format, Rhythm shot a 581 and Esha 579 in the 60-shot qualification stage to qualify for the eight-woman 24-shot final in third and seventh spots, respectively.

A third Olympics champion in the final field, Tokyo mixed team winner Jiang Ranxin of China had topped the field with a 588, seven ahead of second-best Kim Bomi of South Korea.

Ukrainian legend Kostevych was the strongest with a solid 10.6, but the Indians struggled early, particularly Esha who began with three shots in the eight-ring.

After 10-shots, Anna was in the lead with Kostevych behind her, while Rhythm and Esha were in the fifth and sixth positions.

At the end of the 20th, while Esha had fallen away and finished sixth, Rhythm was up to third and a point behind second-placed Olena and 2.7 behind Anna.

She kept fighting but eventually stopped a point behind the Ukrainian with 219.1 on the board. Having established a healthy lead, Anna closed out comfortably for gold with 241.3 while Olena shot 240.6 for silver.