Shooting: Apurvi Chandela seals her second World Cup gold of the year

Ace Indian shooter Apurvi Chandela clinched her second gold of the season in 10m air rifle event at the third ISSF World Cup of 2019, in Munich. The recently crowned world number one, Apurvi, lived up to the billings as she topped the event in both the qualification and final stages of the tournament.

The 10m air rifle event continues to remain a successful hunting ground for Indian shooters; with Apurvi and Anjum Moudgil winning medals at the World Cup and World Championships, respectively. India had already sealed the two Tokyo 2020 quota places available for this event in the World Championships at Changwonin 2018.

The success story continued even today where Apurvi finished at the top of the podium and Elavenil Valarivan finished fourth, missing out on the bronze by a whisker. 

In a thrilling final, Apurvi started off slow but yet managed to stay in touch with the scores of Luyao Wang from China, who lead through the initial stages of the final. However, when the single shot phase of the final began, Apurvi snatched the lead from Luyao and the two were locked in a close fight till the last s hot of the competition. Apurvi had only a 0.1 point lead over her Chinese compatriot before the two could take their final shots; however, she held her nerves to hit a 10.4 and clinch the top spot by a 0.2 margin over her much younger rival.

The story was a bit different for young Elavenil though, as she missed out on her first senior World Cup medal by only a 0.1 margin. Locked in a tough contest with young Chinese shooter Hong Xu, Elavenil managed to hit an impressive 10.7 in her final shot. However, to her dismay, the Chinese shooter hit a 10.8 to seal the bronze medal.

During the Qualification stages of the tournament, Apurvi and Elavenil lead the roster from the front finishing in 1st and 2nd position respectively. Apurvi shot a very impressive 633.0, continuing her stellar run throughout the past year, which has seen her rise to the World Number one position. The third Indian shooter in the fray Anjum Moudgil finished in 11th position and thereby missed out on qualifying for the finals.

With the Tokyo Olympics just around the corner, the performance of rifle shooters has brought a lot of hope among the shooting contingent. India has already managed to seal 5 quota places and will be looking forward to seal a couple more as the competition in Munich World Cup continues tomorrow.