The Indian domination in air events continued as Hriday Hazarika and Saurabh Chaudhary won the junior men’s air rifle and air pistol gold medals respectively in the Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany.
After the phenomenal score of Elavenil Valarivan in winning the junior women’s air rifle gold, it was literally a gold rush for India as it stayed on top of the medals table with eight gold, a silver and five bronze medals.
China was in the second place with three gold, five silver and three bronze, ahead of Italy which had two gold, three silver and five bronze.
Saurabh overcame a slow start when he trailed the leader by 2.6 points after 10 shots, to eventually beat him with a 4.1 point margin for the junior men’s air pistol gold. Anmol also made the final but missed a medal by 0.3 point, and placed fourth.
The Indian team won the gold, by equalling the Junior world record of 1730, as it beat China by 10 points.
Hriday Hazarika had a thrilling victory by a 0.3 point margin over Maximilian Ulbrich of Germany after he had topped qualification with 627.1. Hriday had a one-point lead before the last two shots and managed to hold his lead despite a last shot of 9.9. There was a team gold as well for India, as it pipped Russia by 1.9 point.
In sports pistol, India won the junior men’s team gold but there was only an individual bronze by Udhayveer Sidhu. In junior women’s sports pistol, Devanshi Rana and Manu Bhaker had qualified among the top three but could not be at their best in the final for which they had reported late.
