Meeting of Shooting Hopes International: Saurabh Chaudhary wins bronze in air pistol

In a lively competition in which three Indians made the junior men final, Arjun Singh Cheema and Anmol Jain had stumbled to the sixth and seventh places respectively, after having fared better in qualification.

In a dramatic climax, Saurabh kept himself in the race for the silver as the eventual champion Monna Paolo of Italy had built up a strong lead at the top, but allowed the better medal to elude his grasp by 0.3 point.

Saurabh Chaudhary shot the bronze in air pistol in the 27th Meeting of Shooting Hopes international competition in Plzen, Czech Republic, on Thursday.

In a lively competition in which three Indians made the junior men final, Arjun Singh Cheema and Anmol Jain had stumbled to the sixth and seventh places respectively, after having fared better in qualification.

In a dramatic climax, Saurabh kept himself in the race for the silver as the eventual champion Monna Paolo of Italy had built up a strong lead at the top, but allowed the better medal to elude his grasp by 0.3 point.

It had to be conceded that Anton Arisarkhov of Russia who had a 0.1 point lead before the two shots to decide the bronze medallist, sustained his good work and improved the margin by 0.2 point.

For someone who had shot the least among the three Indian finalists in the qualification phase, a score of 577, Saurabh gave a good account of himself in the final. He had won the Asian championship junior silver last year in Tehran.

Arjun Singh Cheema had qualified in the second place with a total of 580, following a series of 96, 93, 98, 98, 96 and 99, but was unable to build a strong foundation in the knock-out climax.

It was a similar case for Anmol Jain, who had in fact competed in the World Cup among the men recently in Munich, as he qualified with 579 but slipped to the seventh place.

In the junior men, rifle prone event, Fateh Singh Dhillon missed the final by 0.1 point, and placed ninth with a total of 621.2.

Filip Nepejchal of the Czech Republic who had pipped Fateh Singh by the slender margin to the eighth and last spot in qualification went on to capture the silver medal behind compatriot Jiri Privratsky.

In the junior men rapid fire pistol event, Aadeithyaa Joahal had shot 286 at the half way stage and was three points behind the leader Egor Ismakov of Russia. Anish (283), George Thomas (281), Anhad Jawanda (281), Adarsh Singh (277), Shivam Shukla (277) were the other Indians who would aspire for a better fare in the second stage on Friday.

The results:

Junior men:

10m air pistol: 1. Monna Paolo (ita) 242.2 (581); 2. Anton Arisarkhov (Rus) 238.6 (572); 3. Saurabh Chaudhary 218.5 (577); 6. Arjun Singh Cheema 157.9 (580); 7. Anmol Jain 127.3 (579); 17. Jatin Singh Rathore 568; 26. Rahul Khatri 565.

50m rifle prone: 1. Jiri Privratsky (Cze) 249.2 (623.0); 2. Filip Nepejchal (Cze) 247.8 (621.3); 3. Patrik Jany (Svk) 227.4 (626.4); 9. Fateh Singh Dhillon 621.2; 30. Subhankar Pramanick 616.9; 40. Nishant Dalal 614.9; 75. Syed Araib Parvej 599.9; 76. Harshit Binjwa 597.4.