ISSF Shooting World Cup: Sift Kaur Samra wins women's 50m 3P gold

India's Sift Kaur Samra bagged the women's 50m rifle 3 positions gold medal at the 2025 ISSF Shooting World Cup in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Friday. 

Samra, who had endured a terrible run at the 2024 Paris Olympics, returned to the international circuit with a bang. She topped the qualification round with a score of 590 and was the only Indian to make it to the final.

National record holder Ashi Chouksey had a disappointing outing, shooting a mere 579 to finish 21st. Shriyanka Sadangi finished even lower with a score of 572.

In the final, however, Samra had to work hard.

She was ranked last at the end of the kneeling position, scoring just 147.2 after 15 shots in the series. All the seven other shooters in contention had shot a minimum of 150 – the seventh placed Wanru Miao of China had shot 150.7 in the kneeling position.

Though Samra fought back well in the prone position, the deficit was so much that she was still last at the end of the series with a score of 304.1. She, however, had made up some ground, trailing the now seventh placed Emely Jaeggi by just 0.2 points.

The final standing series then brought out the best of Samra.

The Indian shot a brilliant 52.3 and 51.2 in the two standing series to take her total score to 407.6. All of a sudden Samra was in the lead. She was 0.6 ahead of Miao, who was in the silver medal position.

Having taken an unlikely lead, Samra grabbed the opportunity with both hands. She safe guarded her position throughout the single-shot elimination rounds to finish on top of the podium.

Samra's effort marked first gold medal of the 2025 ISSF World Cup for India. 

Chain Singh wins bronze

Earlier in the day, Chain Singh clinched the first medal for India at the 2025 ISSF Shooting World Cup. He bagged a bronze medal in men's 50 rifle 3 positions.

This was the third World Cup medal for the experienced Indian shooter, but the first ever in an individual event. He overcame the challenge of his fellow Indian, Aishwary Tomar, who settled for fourth place.

The youngster Aishwary was in the medal positions for the major part of the final, but a poor 7.8 on the 41st shot ended his medal hopes. He finished fourth with a score of 432.6.

Meanwhile, National Games champion Niraj Kumar finished in seventh position, whereas the renowned 50m rifle 3 positions shooter Istvan Peni (461) of Hungary clinched the gold medal ahead of the Chinese shooter, Jiaming Tian (458.8).

In the qualification round, Aishwary (589, 31x) and Chain Singh (589, 27x) finished in second and third position respectively. Niraj, meanwhile, finished fifth with a score of 587.

Manu Bhaker returns in action

Paris Olympic medalist Manu Bhaker also returned to the circuit for the first time since her triumph, marking it a good comeback as she ended the first day of the qualification round of 25m sports pistol in the top five.

If we exclude the RPO athletes, Manu is currently sitting in the third position after scoring 291 with 7 inner tens, followed by Simranpreet Brar in fifth with a score of 290 in the precision stage.

Meanwhile, Olympian Esha Singh is currently in 11th position with a score of 285. She will be hoping for a better second day in the rapid-fire stage and to jump into the top eight to book her place in the final.