Meghana misses out on a Shooting World Cup medal

Qualification topper Meghana Sajjanar lost a medal in the shoot-off and settled for the fourth place in women’s air rifle in the shooting World Cup in Gabala, Azerbaijan, on Thursday.

The 23-year-old Meghana, who trains with Rakesh Manpat in Bengaluru, was in the second place at one stage but slipped to the third place following a shot of 9.8, to be tied on 205.7 with Jasmine Ser Xiang Wei of Singapore.

Qualification topper Meghana Sajjanar lost a medal in the shoot-off and settled for the fourth place in women’s air rifle in the shooting World Cup in Gabala, Azerbaijan, on Thursday.

The 23-year-old Meghana, who trains with Rakesh Manpat in Bengaluru, was in the second place at one stage but slipped to the third place following a shot of 9.8, to be tied on 205.7 with Jasmine Ser Xiang Wei of Singapore.

The seasoned Jasmine Ser won the shoot-off to march ahead but settled for the bronze behind the Chinese Peng Xinyi and Shi Mengyao, who needed a shoot off to decide the gold medallist.

Former Asian champion Pooja Ghatkar who had won the bronze medal in the first World Cup in Delhi this season placed fourth while, World Cup Final silver medallist, Olympian Apurvi Chandela missed the final by 0.1 point.

The disappointment of not winning a medal apart, it was a bright fare from the three Indian women as they placed in the top-10 in a field of 69 shooters.

Equally, for Meghana it was an improvement after her scores of 413.3 and 417.4 that had seen her placed 16th and 15th in the first two World Cups of the season in Delhi and Munich.

In men’s air rifle, Olympic and World Championship medallist Gagan Narang served a warning to the rest with an impressive score of 628.8 in the MQS section, following a series of 105.0, 104.6, 104.5, 104.2, 105.9, 104.6. His score was better than what the eventual gold and silver medallists had accomplished.

Interestingly, Milutin Stefanovic of Serbia and Yao Yuncong of China had tied at 250.9, a world record equalling score in the final, and went through a shoot-off to decide the champion.

The three Indian shooters in the main stream who were eligible to fight for a medal, Deepak Kumar, Satyendra Singh and Ravi Kumar were below their best and placed 25th, 36th and 41st respectively in a field of 72 shooters.

The results:

Men:

10m air rifle: 1. Milutin Stefanovic (Srb) 250.9 (EWR) 10.0 (628.1); 2. Yao Yuncong (Chn) 250.9 (EWR) 9.6 (627.2); 3. Peni Istvan (Hun)

229.4 (629.0); 25. Deepak Kumar 623.3; 36. Satyendra Singh 620.4; 41.Ravi Kumar 620.0. MQS: Gagan Narang 628.8.

Women: 10m air rifle: 1. Peng Xinyi (Chn) 248.1(9.9) 418.9; 2. Shi Mengyao (Chn) 248.1(9.5) 419.6; 3. Jasmine Ser Xiang Wei (Sgp) 225.7

(419.2); 4. Meghana Sajjanar 205.7 (419.6); 5. Pooja Ghatkar 183.8 (416.8); 10. Apurvi Chandela 416.6.