ISSF World Cup Final: Indian shooters disappoint on second day

Indian shooters drew another blank at the ISSF World Cup final as Hriday Hazarika and Elavenil Valarivan finished seventh in their respective categories on Wednesday.

With a total of five Indian shooters in the medal events, the likes of Rudrankksh Patil, Mehuli Ghosh, and Esha Singh faltered in their events.

However, India's medal hopes are alive as Ganemat Sekhon finished second at the end of day one of qualification in the women's skeet event.

In the men’s air rifle final, Hriday began with a 10.6 and returned a score of 51.9 after the first five-shot series to be in fifth position. His eighth shot was a 10.9 but his fifth and sixth being in the nine-ring meant he would go down to seventh after 10 shots.

He did improve to sixth after his 12th shot but German Maximillian Ulbrich outgunned him in the 13th and 14th as the Indian bowed. Zalan Pekler of Hungary won gold.

World champion shooter Rudrankksh Patil could not make it to the eight-shooter final in the event, shooting a subdued 626.1 to finish 13th.

Tokyo Olympian Elavenil also took the eighth and final qualifying spot in women's 10m air rifle with a score of 630.8.

Elavenil, who already has a World Cup Final gold to her name in 2019, began her final with a solid 10.8 only to follow up with a 9.9 which pegged her back in a world-class field.

After 10 shots, Elavenil was in the elimination zone, however, Tokyo Olympic medallist Mary Tucker of the USA was to take eighth place with a low 10 on the 12th as the Indian survived, only to become the third Indian in two days to exit in seventh after the 14th shot.

Poland’s Aneta Stankiewicz won gold as Zhiling Wang of China took silver.

Ramita Jindal and Mehuli Ghosh could not make it past the qualification round, finishing ninth and 10th with scores of 629.4 and 628.3 respectively.

In women's skeet, Ganemat began by shooting three identical rounds of 24/25 to be placed second on count-back to leader Assem Orynbay of Kazakhstan.

The duo was among four shooters on identical scores of 72, including skeet legend Kimberly Rhode of the US.

Prithviraj Tondaiman, in men's trap, had two rounds of 46 to begin with and was outside the top six.