Junior Shooting World Cup: India lead medal tally as Prachi, Vanshika strike gold

Cairo: India's Prachi Gaikwad struck gold in the women's 50m rifle 3-positions, while Vanshika Chaudhary and Sejal Kamble secured the top two podium spots in the women's 10m air pistol final as the country continued its dominant run in the medal standings at the ISSF Junior World Cup (Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun) here on Thursday.

The two gold medals on Thursday, following Shiva Narwal's triumph in the men's 10m air pistol on the opening day, took India's gold tally to three and its overall count to 11 medals, including five silver and three bronze medals.

Naraen Pranav also chipped in with a bronze in the men's 10m air rifle after a close battle for silver.

Prachi fired 354.6 in the final to edge past Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN) Darya Chuprys, who shot 354.4, while another AIN shooter, Elena Kretinina, claimed bronze with a score of 343.3.

Prachi was the lone Indian to make the 3P final, qualifying sixth with a score of 578, and began the medal round in fifth place after the first 10 shots in the 'kneeling' position.

She surged to second after a strong 'prone' round, closing to within 0.6 points of leader Darya at that stage.

The Indian then moved into the lead for the first time with a 50-plus effort in the opening five shots of the 'standing' position, but Darya responded with a 51.0 in the next series.

Prachi, meanwhile, slipped momentarily to third after missing the 10-ring four times, setting up a tense finish with five shots remaining.

The minor setback did little to shake Prachi, who rose to the occasion when it mattered most, striking the 10-ring four times -- including two high 10s -- to snatch gold from Darya by a slender margin of 0.2 points.

Vanshika shot 241.3 in the women’s 10m air pistol final to clinch gold, while Sejal finished with 239.6 after 24 shots to take silver, with Liao Ke Rong of Chinese Taipei settling for bronze with 218.3.

Earlier, Vanshika, Sejal and Kanak had topped the qualification chart with scores of 579, 577 and 576 respectively to make the final, and though the trio started cautiously, they gradually took control, with Vanshika and Sejal converting it into a one-two finish while Kanak narrowly missed out on a medal, finishing fourth behind Liao.

Vanshika, who had won a silver in the Asian Championships at home earlier this year, struck a first junior World Cup gold. It was also Sejal's second silver in the competition, having finished second in the women's 25m pistol two days back.

Naraen, meanwhile, secured the 10m air rifle bronze with a final score of 229.5.

Three Indians made the cut with Naraen best placed at third scoring 630.9 in the qualification round. Abhinav Shaw was fourth with 630.0 while Divyanshu Dewangan took the seventh qualifying spot with a score of 626.8.

In the final, Divyanshu was the first to be eliminated in eighth place with his score reading 122.4 after 12 shots of the 24-shot final.

Abhinav and Naraen were in the fight for third place at that point with Uzbek Javohir Sokhibov and Cypriot Achilleas Sophocleous in first and second respectively.

Naraen then fired a 10.7 followed by a perfect 10.9, to challenge Sophocleous for silver as Abhinav faded away. Sokhibov seemed out of reach.

Abhinav had 0.6 to make up on Naraen going into the 20th shot, but a 9.9 put paid to his hopes, as Naraen clinched bronze, falling short of the Greek by 0.4 after the 22nd shot.

Sokhibov romped to gold finishing with 251.2, a whole point ahead of Sophocleous.