Saurabh Chaudhary ends 30th at ISSF World Cup on return after 1.5 years

Saurabh Chaudhary had a disappointing return to international competitions as he finished 30th in the qualification rounds of the 10m pistol event at the ISSF Rio Rifle/Pistol World Cup on Friday.

While Saurabh finished 30th in the qualification round, young pistol shooter Sagar Dangi stole the thunder by finishing 2nd in the qualification rounds and eventually finishing at 6th spot in the final.

While Saurabh had a disappointing score of 572, Sagar Dangi shot a solid 581 to make it to the the final. In the final, he was a little inconsistent to finally lose out to the Latvian and Italian shooters.

The two other Indian 20m pistol shooters, Kedarling Balakrishna Uchaganve and Sharvan Kumar, finished 15th and 16th respectively in the qualification round.

Saurabh had only participated in one senior ISSF event since the Tokyo debacle—in Cairo last year, when he bagged the gold medal in 10m air pistol amid a depleted field. On his return to a full-strength field featuring the Chinese, Americans, Latvians and Italians, he has failed to hit the target. He failed to make it to the Indian squad for the upcoming Asian Games and World Championships too.

Sagar Dangi, on the other hand, already having won the World Junior Championships silver behind China last year, has staked his claim as one of the most promising junior shooters from the country with his impressive show in the Rio World Cup.