Vijayveer strikes gold in World Cup

Indian shooters Rudrankksh Patil and Arya Borse combined to win the silver medal in the 10m air rifle mixed team event at the ISSF World Cup here on Wednesday.

Representing India 1, the duo of Rudrankksh and Arya shot 9 in the gold medal match to finish second on the podium, with the Chinese pairing of Zifei Wang and Buhan Song winning the top prize with a total score of 17.

The second Indian team of Arjun Babuta and Narmada Raju finished fourth after losing to Argentina 1’s Fernanda Russo and Marcelo Julian Gutierrez 13-17 in the bronze medal contest.

Rudrankksh and Arya were second in the qualification with a total of 630.5, while Babuta and Narmada were fourth with an aggregate score of 629.6.

With four gold, two silver and one bronze, India are now placed second on the medal tally behind China, who have a couple of bronze more.

Late on Tuesday, Paris Olympian Vijayveer Sidhu fetched India its fourth gold medal at the tournament after he emerged victorious in the men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol event.

Vijayveer shot 29 in a thrilling but low-scoring final to get the better of experienced Italian Riccardo Mazzatti, who was left one short after the eight series of five rapid-fire shots each. Chinese teenager Yang Yuhao won the bronze.

“I have played so many finals in the Nationals and trials, and have performed well,” Vijayveer said. “So today I told myself that I had to do what I do there. Which is that I have to feel that I own the place like I do in Delhi. Just do the same things, but more importantly feel the same way. I just wanted to control what I can control and it worked. I am happy that this gold was a barrier and now it has been broken down and this will help future Indian athletes also in this event,” he added.

At the shotgun range, the women’s trap squad could not make the medal rounds. Neeru was the best Indian on show with a tally of 115 giving her the 12th place. Pragati Dubey was 16th with 110 while Bhavya Tripathi was 23rd with 106.