Anjum Moudgil translated her fabulous form into a silver medal in the women’s rifle 3-position event in the shooting World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Her fine effort, in what is easily the most gruelling event in shooting, with 120 shots in qualification and 45 more in the final, in kneeling, prone and standing sections, helped India stay on top of the medals table with three gold, a silver and four bronze medals.
24-year-old Anjum was ahead in the final after 30 shots, but Pei Ruijao of China, who had qualified with a world record 1178, caught up and moved ahead after ten shots in the standing position and sustained her effort till the end.
Anjum did bridge the gap with a 10.8 on the 41st shot, but eventually lost the gold by 1.2 points.
'Feels great'
"It feels great to win my first World Cup medal, in my first final. I was focused and confident," said Anjum, in a release issued by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) here on Friday.
Anjum said she was not thinking about a medal but focused on performing to her best ability. She thanked coach Deepali Deshpande for "working so hard for me", apart from the team officials, and
the NRAI. It was the seventh World Cup for Anjum, who had competed in the World Championship in 2014 as a junior. She had won the air rifle bronze medal as a junior in the Asian championship in Kuwait in 2014.
Read -
Qatar Open: Sathiyan is singles pre-quarterfinals
Gaayathri NIthyanandam and Tejaswini Sawant stumbled in the standing position with scores of 371 and 374 respectively and thus had to settle for the 15th and 16th spots with an identical total of 1153.
In the men’s 25-metre rapid fire pistol, Anish Bhanwala shot 578 and missed the final on the basis of a lesser count of inner 10s after he tied for the sixth place with Yao Zhaonan of China.
After having scored 294 in the first phase the previous day, Anish was below par in the 4-second series in the second phase, as he compiled a total of 88 which compared poorly with his 95 in the same round earlier. He had shot 99 and 97 in the 8-second and 6-second series before the toughest part, 4-second series upset his plans of making the final.
The 15-year-old Anish was shooting in his maiden World Cup among the men. He had competed in the Junior World Championship last year in Suhl where he won the standard pistol gold with a world record, apart from a silver in sports pistol.
Comments
SHARE