Vijayveer Sidhu provided an unforgettable silver lining for the host, as he missed the rapid fire pistol gold in the shoot-off to Peeter Olesk of Estonia, in the shooting World Cup at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Friday.
It was not as if India did not win gold. It did win two on the day. Quite expectedly, the mixed rifle 3-position gold through Sanjeev Rajput and Tejaswini who beat Serhiy Kulish and Anna Ilina of Ukraine 31-29 in a thriller. Olympian Sanjeev stood up to the task and delivered the winning hit with a 10.8 in standing.
There was also the expected men’s 50-metre rifle team gold through Swapnil Kusale, Chain Singh and Niraj Kumar as India beat the upgraded US team 47-25 in the postponed final, after Hungary had given up its place owing to internal squabble.
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India did jump up further on top of the medals table with 12 gold, seven silver and six bronze. The second placed US had three gold, three silver and a bronze. Interestingly, India has accounted for 25 of the 70 medals won so far.
Yet, it was a disappointment that Kynan Chenai who qualified for the final with 121 out of 125, finished fourth in men’s trap. Prithviraj Tondaiman missed the final by two points. The women trap shooters, Shreyasi Singh, Manisha Keer and Rajeshwari Kumari shot identical 107, and missed the final by three points. It was no consolation that Neeru shot 112 in MQS.
In such a scenario, Vijayveer Sidhu rose to the challenge brilliantly in an exciting Olympic event, in which five shots are fired in a sequence within four seconds.
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After trailing by one point before the last series, the 18-year-old Vijay delivered hit four to tie at 26-26 with Olesk. However, the World junior champion in standard pistol, Vijay was unnerved in the shoot-off and was beaten 4-1.
It was a brave effort by Vijayveer, after Olympian Gurpreet Singh and Anish Bhanwala had slipped out in the fifth and sixth place. Anish was kept in the team against the selection norms as he had a chance of winning the Olympic quota on world rank.
The results:
Men:
Women:
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