ISSF World Cup: Indian shooters off to good start in Beijing

In a field of 107 shooters in women's air rifle, Apurvi Chandela topped qualification but missed a medal by 0.1 point.

Apurvi Chandela topped qualification with a score of 630.4.

World Cup gold-medallist Apurvi Chandela topped qualification with a score of 630.4 in a field of 107 shooters in women’s air rifle in the shooting World Cup in Beijing, but missed a medal by 0.1 point on Tuesday.

Apurvi who had won the Olympic quota place in the event along with silver-medallist Anjum Moudgil in the World Championship last year, placed fourth as she was overtaken to the medal by Keum Jihyeon of Korea by the narrowest margin. She had won the gold with a world record in the World Cup in Delhi in February.

As it happened

Anjum Moudgil placed sixth after qualifying in the fourth place with 629.4. The third member of the team Elavenil Valarivan settled for the 17th place, owing to a below-par start.

Yulia Karimova of Russia beat Kwon Eunji of Korea by 0.9 point for the gold medal. Yulia had won the Olympic quota in the rifle 3-position event in the World Championship.

In fact, with six of the eight finalists having already won the Olympic quota or being ineligible to win one as their countries had already won the maximum two Olympic quota places in the event, Najmeh Khedmati of Iran and Anna Nielsen of Denmark were assured of the Olympic quota places even before the start of the final. The two finished fifth and seventh subsequently.

Shooting in the MQS section, Mehuli Ghosh was a class act with the second highest score of 632.2. She was admirably consistent, shooting 105.0 or more in each of the six rounds.

In men’s 50-metre rifle 3-position elimination round, Sanjeev Rajput (1171), Chain Singh (1169) and Parul Kumar (1168) did very well to make the cut for the qualification round to be shot on Wednesday.

The results Women’s air rifle: 1. Yulia Karimova (Rus) 251.1 (630.4); 2. Kwon Eunji (Kor) 250.2 (629.0); 3. Keum Jihyeon (Kor) 228.0 (628.7); 4. Apurvi Chandela 207.8 (630.9); 6. Anjum Moudgil 164.6 (629.4); 17. Elavenil Valarivan 626.9. MQS: Mehuli Ghosh 632.2.