World No. 1 Divyansh Panwar settles for bronze in Delhi Shooting World Cup | More sports News – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: World No. 1 in men’s 10m air rifle, Indian shooter Divyansh Singh Panwar had to settle for a bronze medal at the ongoing ISSF World Cup, while his teammate Arjun Babuta finished an impressive fifth in his senior World Cup debut.
Panwar, who shot a 629.1 in qualifying on Friday to stand sixth in the top-eight qualifying bracket, shot 228.1 for the bronze medal here at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range.
Babuta had registered an impressive 631.8 in qualifying and scored 185.5 in the final for his fifth place.
In a dramatic finish for gold, USA’s Lucas Kozeniesky (249.8) edged Hungary’s Istvan Peni by just 0.1 point.
“It was like re-visiting what happens in a match. We had almost forgotten it,” said Panwar, who had bagged an Olympic quota with a silver medal at the 2019 Beijing World Cup. “I was nervous, my heartbeat was fast. It has never happened with me before,”

It’s the first ISSF event for the pistol and rifle shooters since the Covid-19 lockdown last year.
Panwar stood joint fifth after the first two series of five shots each. Babuta was just above him at fourth. The difference was just 0.5 points.

TOI Photo
World No. 1 Panwar started doing better as the final went deep. His 13th and 14th shots were 10.3 each, after which both the Indian shooters stood joint fourth at 143.8 points.
“I was in constant eye contact with my coach sitting behind. It helped. This medal will help me build and regain my confidence,” Panwar said.
After Babuta’s elimination, just 0.3 points separated Sergey Richter of Israel and Panwar. But Richter scored 9.6 on his next shot, to concede his third place to the Indian.
But Panwar could not go any further.

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Divyansh Panwar: Delhi Shooting World Cup: Divyansh Panwar wins bronze in men’s 10m air rifle | More sports News – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: World number one Divyansh Singh Panwar opened India’s medals tally with a bronze in the men’s 10m air rifle on the second competition day of the ISSF World Cup here on Saturday.
The 18-year-old Divyansh shot 228.1 to finish third on the podium at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range.
The other Indian participant in the final, Arjun Babuta, finished in fifth place after three scores below 10 in the eight-man final.
American Lucas Kozeniesky claimed the gold medal with 249.8, while Istvan Peni of Hungaria bagged silver with 249.7.
A 10.6 and 10.3 in the seventh series saw Divyansh survive elimination as Sergey Richter of Israel fell behind.
Divyansh, a Tokyo Olympic quota holder, shot 10.6 before bowing out with the bronze medal.
The win will do a world of good to the Jaipur-based Divyansh’s confidence as he braces for the Tokyo Games. He was placed sixth in the 60-shot qualification with a total of 629.1 while Babuta was third with 631.8.
In the final, Babuta had one 9.9 in the first series followed by another 9.9 and 9.7 in the second. Under pressure, the 22-year-old Babuta began the fourth series with one more 9.9 before being eliminated at fifth place with 185.5.

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Delhi Shooting World Cup: More shooters, including Indians, test Covid-positive | More sports News – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: After a Covid-19 test of an overseas rifle shooter returned positive on Friday, the ongoing ISSF World Cup in Delhi has been hit with three more fresh positive cases, two of which are Indian athletes, according to sources.
Sources said that the fresh positive results include a female foreign athlete and two men from the Indian pistol team.
“Three more shooters have been tested positive,” said the source talking to Timesofindia.com. “Two are males from the Indian pistol team and an overseas female shooter.”
“Shooters, who have tested positive, have been isolated,” the source further said.
“The roommates of the Covid-positive shooters have tested negative and will participate in their respective events,” the official source confirmed.
The final of the men and women 10m air rifle, along with the qualifying round and final of men and women 10m air pistol are scheduled for Saturday (March 20).
“Of course, the positive shooters, along with their roommates, won’t participate,” the source added.
The names of the shooters who have tested positive have so far been withheld.
The World Cup officially began on March 18 and runs till March 29.

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divyansh singh panwar: Sporting an Ibrahimovic-like hairstyle, world No. 1 Divyansh oozing with confidence to ‘shoot’ | More sports News – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: The Indian shooting team sat to the left of the dais. With face-masks on, it’s a real task to recognize people these days. So the journalists started spotting the athletes.
“That’s Manu Bhaker, there’s Sanjeev Rajput, Mairaj is second from right in the back row, that’s Saurabh sitting next to Abhishek.” But most stopped guessing as their eyes reached a shooter with a man bun. It was like the shooter took a Zlatan Ibrahimovic picture to his hair-stylist and said – “this is what I want”.
A confident voice from among the seated media had no doubts who the shooter with the man bun was. “That’s our world number one in men’s 10m air rifleDivyansh Singh Panwar,” said the voice from the back of the room at the new athletes’ hostel inside the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range (DKSSR) campus.
The players, media and National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) officials had gathered on Wednesday for the curtain-raiser press conference for the March 18-29 shooting World Cup in Delhi. Before it began, Panwar’s hair-style had already grabbed everyone’s attention.
“Mann tha badane ka…pehle time mila nahi [I always wanted to grow my locks, didn’t get time before],” said Panwar, as he sat down after the press conference to talk to the media.

Divyansh is by nature a shy man who likes to talk very little – Instagram Photo
“It’s not modeled on anyone, just by my own choice,” he replied at the mention that his hair-style reminded people of Ibrahimovic.
Panwar wants to land at the Tokyo Olympics sporting this look.
“I will get it trimmed after the Olympics,” Panwar said on being quizzed further. “Nothing to do with any superstition, just that I wanted to. School mei to allow nahi karte the [long hair were never allowed in school],” said the 18-year-old shooter, who became the world No. 1 in men’s 10m air rifle when the rankings were updated in April last year.
BIG BOY
Divyansh was in the grip of Covid-19 last year, when he tested positive upon returning for the national camp post the Diwali break. But he has moved on from that horror memory and only wants to talk about positive things now.
“Thoda sa tall hua hu [I have grown a little taller], but I didn’t like that,” the shooter from Jaipur said. The obvious next question was “why?”
“My position is such that I back-bend a little more. So I am both happy and sad about it [gaining height]. It hasn’t disturbed my practice…but I won’t be able to manage this position [for long] if I don’t work out, so that’s essential,” Panwar replied.
His shooting suit too must have become unusable with longer arms and legs now.
“Every 4-5 months we get a new costume made anyways, because it’s stiffness doesn’t remain for long, and we need good stiffness in that,” he said.
“I haven’t changed anything technically [after gaining height]. There’s just a minute difference in standing position, but that’s a very minor thing.

Divyansh took to shooting as a 13-year-old kid – Instagram Photo
‘LIFE WENT BLANK’
The screeching halt that COVID-19 forced everything to come to last year had hit Panwar badly, before coach Deepak Kumar Dubey helped him gather himself. In 2017, Divyansh’s father Ashok Panwar had sent his son to Delhi to train under Dubey.
The teenage champion said it helped to be around his coach, especially after he got stuck in Delhi during the lockdown and couldn’t even travel home.
Beech mein [during lockdown] jab practice bilkul nahi mil rahi thi tab confidence low ho gaya tha [with no practice during lockdown, my confidence took a hit],” said Panwar, who grabbed an Olympic quota with his silver medal at the 2019 Beijing World Cup.
“Nothing was happening, I couldn’t return home as well. My coach was with me. The lockdown happened at once, so both of us couldn’t go home.
“For the first 10 -15 days [of lockdown], the mental status was also low. News was coming in that nothing will happen now. We resumed training a month later. But for a month before that, there was no confidence. I was clueless about what to do. Life went blank.”

Coach Deepak Kumar Dubey, right, turned his flat in Faridabad into a make-shift shooting range for Divyansh during lockdown – AFP Photo
‘KUCHH TO ACHHA HOGA’ (SOMETHING GOOD WILL HAPPEN)
The 2019 ISSF World Cup in Delhi was Panwar’s first at the senior level. So this time it will be his second World Cup on home soil.
But the rifleman assures things have changed in two years. It shows in the confidence Panwar has developed in his voice, and the stories he is able to narrate, which was missing before in his media interactions that he always wanted to keep short.
“I had no experience [in 2019], naya naya shooter tha ek tareeke se, zyada hi kuchh nervous tha at that time. Thoda sa family pressure bhi hota hai, ke pata nahi kaisa karega [I was a rookie shooter in 2019, overtly nervous. There is also family pressure, about how well I would do],” he said.
“But now there’s nothing of that sort. They [family] also trust me more now. I also think ke itni training kar raha hu to kuchh to achha hoga hi [something good will happen as I am training so hard].”
NEW LIFE
Stepping into adulthood as an 18-year-old, Panwar can afford a laugh comparing the current time to when he held a rifle for the first time while entering his teens.
“I was 13 when I started shooting. Pehle to bas mann kiya to range chale gaye, nahi to nahi gaye [I would go to range if I felt like it, otherwise not]. Now the schedule is fixed.”
And he went on to elaborate, especially expressing happiness over the availability of a mental trainer.

Divynash with shooting legend Abhinav Bindra – Instagram Photo
“I am with my coach, Deepak sir. So morning at 6 o’ çlock there is yoga and meditation. The evening workout is different, with OGQ [Olympic Gold Quest], and the team. Now there is a mental trainer as well. That helps too. I don’t think without that one can perform well in shooting. But everybody contributes, whether it’s the mental coach, gym trainer, coach.
“Earlier I didn’t have these facilities, so it wasn’t that good. As I am getting these facilities, it is helping me perform better,” said Panwar.
CONSISTENT INNER 10s
Panwar’s consistency is something that has stood out over the last 2-3 years.
Apart from winning the junior and youth titles in the Nationals since 2017, he displayed his control and precision internationally as well, with a silver medal in 2018 at the Asian Junior Championships in Kuwait, a gold at the Asian Shooting Championships in China and another gold at the Junior World Cup in Suhl.
His gold at the 2019 World Cup in Putian became a stepping stone and the silver that fetched India an Olympic quota in Beijing added to Panwar’s confident shooting.
“I think it’s because of all these [various coaching] that I have been able to maintain my consistency. Uske bina kahan kuch ho pata hai [it can’t happen without that].
THE GUITARIST AND THE PET LOVER
Being a mental game, shooting can become very stressful, which makes it critical to be passionate about something else, maybe a hobby, away from the firing point.
Panwar, who has started playing the guitar, agrees.
“Outside shooting, I play the guitar. If I were to rate myself on a scale of 1 to 10, I would say three. Basically I sing a little with chords. Old songs only, I don’t like the new ones,” Panwar said with a smile.
And there is ‘Klaus’ as well at home, Panwar’s pet dog.

Diyansh says spending time with his pet dog calms him down – Instagram Photo
“I have a dog as a pet – named Klaus, which is a German name. I spend a lot of time with my dog. It lifts me if I am feeling down.”
ONLY TECHNIQUE MATTERS
Postponement of the Olympics last year came as a jolt to athletes world over. In case of India, the shooting team was primed for a possible historic medal haul at the Games.
Panwar said it was both good and bad.
“Let’s talk about bad first. Bad was that it [Olympics] got postponed. We were practising very well. The good part was we got another year to prepare. Jitna score tab lagta tha, uss se ek point aur extra maarenge [will score a point more than what I was scoring last year],” said Panwar.
“Scores ka up down chalta rehta hai kabhi kabhi training mei [scores keep going up and down in training]…What satisfies me the most is following the technique completely. Whatever my coach has taught me until now, If I follow that, I am satisfied, whether I achieve a good score or not.
“That’s what happens with us in practice as well, daily. Chahe score lage ya na lage, jab tak khud se satisfied nahi hote [technique-wise], tab tak dimag ghoomta rehta hai [whether we get a good score or not, until we are satisfied ourselves, the mind is not settled].”

Divyansh has held the world No. 1 position in 10m air rifle since April last year – TOI Photo
The World Cup in Delhi will also double up as the selection ground for NRAI to pick the team for Olympics. In shooting, athletes win the quota but who gets to go for the tournament depends on the federation, as it selects shooters for each of the quota places.
Panwar admitted that such things do bring with them some amount of pressure.
“Thoda sa to nervousness rehta hi hai, jab competition nazdeek aa jaate hain, that I have to retain my place in the team, Olympic mei selection hogi ya nahi [there is some nervousness as a competition nears, things like will I be selected for the Olympics]. Those thoughts keep coming. It can affect you in a match, your scores,” the 18 year old rifle shooter further said.
“It’s a mental game.”

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issf world cup delhi 2021: Delhi Shooting World Cup will put names against India’s Olympic quotas | More sports News – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: There’s a good chance for Indian shooting to bag another quota place for the Olympics. The current count of 15, though, is already a record number for the contingent that will travel to Tokyo this July. Those 15 spots will likely have names against them sometime next month, depending on how the 57-member Indian team performs at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup set to begin here.
The World Cup for rifle, pistol and shotgun runs from March 18 to 29. The pre-event training commences on Thursday, with the competition beginning on Friday.
“Shortly after this World Cup [the Olympic team will be announced],” said National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president, Raninder Singh, on Wednesday at the curtain-raiser press conference for the tournament at Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range (DKSSR) here.
Besides being the first international event for rifle and pistol shooters since the lockdown last year, it’s also the first international-level tournament among the Olympic sports to be hosted by India in the Covid era.
“Of course, we have a selection policy [for Olympics] that will be the primary thing, but we also have to see how, after such a long layoff, everybody is [performing],” Singh said addressing the media at the recently-inaugurated athletes’ hostel in the DKSSR campus.
“We have to be absolutely sure, although, I don’t think there will be any issue. Everybody seems to be doing very well.”
In shooting, athletes win Olympic quota for the country; and the national federation later decides the names of best-performing shooter for each quota.

March 18 is reserved for pre-event training for the participating nations – TOI Photo
In all, there are 53 nations participating in the tournament, encompassing 294 athletes and 109 team officials. Shooting powerhouses Japan and China decided to skip the event because of Covid-related restrictions.
The Delhi edition of ISSF’s World Cup in May last year was cancelled because of the pandemic.
16th OLYMPIC QUOTA
The 25m rapid fire pistol event could see India possibly seal another quota place for the Tokyo Games, but it will have to be a gold-medal effort to be in the safe zone for a ranking-point quota.
Among the 15 participants in the event will be India’s Anish Bhanwala, Vijayveer Sidhu, Gurpeet Singh, Arpit Goel (MQS) and Adarsh Singh (MQS).
World No. 12 Bhanwala currently has 207 points and is ranked highest among the Indian shooters. But a gold-medal for either of the three Indian shooters playing for medals — Anish, Sidhu and Singh — will brighten India’s chances.

Anish Bhanwala is in the reckoning for a 25m rapid fire pistol Olympic quota – Twitter Photo
A gold medal offers 1,000 points, silver 750 and bronze 500.
However, the official confirmation for the rankings quota will only come in post June 6, when the European Championships end.
UK, BRAZIL QUARANTINED; NRAI TO BEAR COST
The mutation of the Covid-19 virus in the United Kingdom and Brazil warranted their players and officials to serve a mandatory quarantine upon arrival, before being allowed to train and compete.
However, the Indian government agreed to cut down the quarantine period from 14 days to seven days; and as a goodwill gesture, the NRAI decided to bear the cost of quarantine period for the two teams.
“Our organising committee felt that it would be unfair for them to bear the cost of that [quarantine]. We have to make it easy for the athletes. So we are going to bear all the cost for the quarantined teams or athletes and officials from the day they land to the day [quarantine ends],” the NRAI president further confirmed.

As part of Covid safety protocol, body-length sheets have been placed between firing points to maintain social distancing – TOI Photo
NO SPECTATORS
Following the ISSF guidelines for events held during the pandemic, NRAI is not “encouraging” spectators for the 12-day World Cup in the capital.
“Actually we haven’t passed any ruling that no spectators are allowed,” the NRAI president replied to the question. “The ISSF has said, and it is very sensible, that because of the social-distancing norms, primarily in the best interest of the health of the athletes, it is not advisable to have 500 or so people gathering in a small place.
“Therefore, we are not encouraging anyone [spectators] to come…It’s a great shame that we can’t showcase the tournament, like we had in the past, to the general public.”

Former India double-trap shooter and winner of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, Ronjan Sodhi, had expressed his displeasure about it.
“Have represented India for 41 World Cups, 12 World Championships etc etc. I take pride for the World Cup happening in my country but unfortunately cannot go to DKSSR in spite of having a Negative Covid test Report,” Sodhi, also a World Cup and Asian Games gold medallist, had tweeted.
To this, Singh replied: “He [Sodhi] can come to our office, take an accreditation, have his [Covid] test done, get into the hotel and join us. No problem. He is a friend of mine and one of our senior-most athletes. We are all for it.”

The tournament will be played behind closed doors, with only accredited media allowed inside the ranges – TOI Photo
PLAN ‘B’ AFTER THE WORLD CUP
This World Cup will, in all probability, be the last top-level competition for India’s rifle and pistol shooters before the Olympics. Preempting that situation, the NRAI has a Plan B in place to keep its shooters in the best possible shape.
“What we have in place…is to invite people [international shooters] in the events where our team is going to shoot and where their team [country] is going to shoot [at the Olympics], to come here at our expense and play unofficial matches, friendlies. That will be some competition,” said the NRAI president.
INDIA’S 15 OLYMPIC QUOTA WINNERS AT THE DELHI WORLD CUP
Rifle and Pistol: Manu Bhaker, Apurvi Chandela, Anjum Moudgil, Abhishek Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma, Sanjeev Rajput, Tejaswini Sawant, Divyansh Singh Panwar, Chinki Yadav, Yashaswini Deswal, Rahi Sarnobat, Deepak Kumar, Aishwary Tomar
Shotgun: Angad Bajwa and Mairaj Ahmad Khan

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ISSF World Cup: Indian shooters renew quest for excellence | More sports News – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: Deprived of competition for more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, India’s phenomenal pistol and rifle shooters will renew their quest for excellence when the ISSF World Cup begins here from Friday.
In the first multi-nation Olympic sport event of this scale anywhere in the world amid the pandemic, India is fielding a strong 57-member squad, including the 15 quota holders for the Tokyo Olympics.
While it will be a first competitive outing for the pistol and rifle shooters in a world ravaged by the health crisis, those in skeet and trap events had participated in the Shotgun World Cup in Cairo, Egypt last month.
There is no dearth of proven performers in the Indian team and quite a few of them would look to use it as a testing ground before the Olympics, but the tournament assumes added significance for Anish Bhanwala.
For the 18-year-old from Karnal, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, a good performance here would help him secure an Olympic quota and swell India’s already unprecedented tally to 16.
While speaking to the Indian shooters during the pre-tournament press conference on Wednesday, National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Raninder Singh mentioned about India’s prospects in men’s 25m rapid fire pistol, event in which Anish competes.
“We wish everyone all the very best and in particular, our men’s rapid fire pistol squad, where we have the opportunity to deliver the 16th Olympic quota to the country,” Raninder told reporters.
What could help Anish in his endeavour is his high world ranking and the qualifications of others ranked above him.
Anish is currently ranked 12th in the world. The ISSF could allot individual quota to the athlete who accumulates more ranking points by the May 31 deadline.
The tournament is more important for shooters looking to secure rank based points and subsequent quotas for the Tokyo Games.
On the first competition day, India will see participation from Divyansh Singh Panwar, Arjun Babuta and Deepak Kumar in the men’s 10m air rifle qualification. Pankaj Kumar and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar will shoot in MQS (Minimum Qualification Score).
That will be followed by a world class lineup featuring the extremely talented Elavenil Valarivan, Anjum Moudgil and Apurvi Chandela (the first two Tokyo Games quota winners from India) in the women’s 10m air rifle competition.
Shriyanka Sadangi and Nisha Kanwar will be in the MQS.
The second competition day will be a star-studded affair as the likes of the sensational Manu Bhaker, Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma and Yashaswini Singh Deswal will take to the range with an aim to add to the laurels they have won in recent years.
The qualifications and finals of both men’s and women’s 10m air pistol events will be held on Saturday, which could also see excellent shooters such as Elavenil, Anjum, Apurvi and Divyansh in action, provided they clear the qualification hurdles on the opening day of the combined world cup.
With the postponement of next month’s World Cup in Korea following pullouts by India and a few other countries due to its 14 mandatory hard quarantine for inbound travellers, the Tokyo-bound shooters don’t have a lot of tournaments to iron out their chinks before the Olympics.
Barring the tournament in the Indian capital, there is a combined world cup schedule in Baku, Azerbaijan from June 21 to July 2 and a shotgun world cup in Lonato, Italy from May 7-17.
The absence of shooting powerhouses China and Japan will be certainly felt but that will definitely not take away from the shooters the thrill of competing in one of the biggest tournaments in a long, long time.
A total of 294 athletes will be seen in action in the tournament with as many as 53 countries confirming their entries, including Korea, Singapore, USA, United Kingdom, Iran, Ukraine, France, Hungary, Italy, Thailand and Turkey.

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ISSF World Cup: After Covid-induced break, shooting returns | More sports News – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: Sitting inside a conference room of the newly-built Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) residential facility at the Karni Singh Shooting Range (KSSR) here, India’s Tokyo Olympic-bound shooters looked a cheerful lot on Wednesday.
Though they had their masks on, their happiness at returning to the international competition arena for the first time in almost a year, was discernible.
Competition at the ISSF Combined World Cup for Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun will get underway on Friday at the KSSR amid strict social distancing and health hygiene protocols. The WC, which runs until March 29, will provide the Indian shooters a golden opportunity to test themselves against the world’s best before the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) announces the final contingent for the Tokyo Olympics.
As a shooter wins quota for the country, the final selection in some air pistol and rifle categories will be done based on the performance in the Delhi WC.
Skeet shooters (including Olympic quota holders Angad Bajwa and Mairaj Ahmad Khan) did recently get a chance to compete at the ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Cairo, Egypt (February 22-March 5). But for India’s much-fancied air rifle and pistol shooters, it will be the first opportunity in 16 months to compete in an international event. Their last outing was at the ISSF World Cup Final Rifle/Pistol in Putian, China (November 17-23, 2019), where Manu Bhaker, Divyansh Singh Panwar and Elavenil Valarivan had won a gold each.
For India and rest of the world, this will be the first multi-nation Olympic sporting event of this magnitude post the Covid-19 pandemic. A total of 53 nations represented by 294 athletes, including a 57-member Indian contingent, and 109 officials will be hosted by the NRAI.

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Shooting World Cup: Adapting to Tokyo Range won’t be a problem for us, says Manu Bhaker | More sports News – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: 2018 World Cup gold medalist, Manu Bhaker on Wednesday said that she is confident of doing well in the upcoming ISSF Shooting World Cup New Delhi.
Last month, the NRAI had announced a 57-member Indian team for the year’s first combined ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun stage, scheduled in New Delhi’s Dr Karni Singh Shooting range from March 18 to 29. The World Cup will see as many as 30 finals being held at an ISSF World Cup stage for the first time with the new team formats approved by the ISSF last year coming into play.
“After a very long time we will be having an international competition, I am looking forward to it. The past one year has been tough for everyone, not just the Indian athletes. We will see how we are able to perform, how we have been training and how we will be able to deliver, we can just hope for the best,” Bhaker told ANI.
Speaking about Tokyo Range and the windy conditions, Bhaker said: “Best part about India is that we have all seasons here, every sort of climate, temperature and environment. We have had all experience about the windy conditions and climate changes, I believe that it won’t be a problem for us.”
Talking about life inside a bio-bubble, Bhaker said: “I am working on my mental conditioning. In the beginning, it was a sort of challenge for all because I believe we never had so many restrictions in one go, you are restricted in everything, you can’t go outside of a room you are meant to be in the room alone.”
Earlier, Rajeev Bhatia, the secretary of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), had confirmed that spectators won’t be allowed in the upcoming ISSF Shooting World Cup.

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Indian women’s trap team settles for silver in ISSF World Cup | More sports News – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: Indian women’s trap team trio Kirti Gupta, Manisha Keer and Rajeshwari Kumari lost 4-6 to Russia to settle for a silver medal on the concluding day of the ISSF World Cup in Cairo.
The Indian team engineered a fantastic comeback in the gold medal match on Thursday, coming back from 0-4 down to tie the final at 4-4. However, it could not hold on in the last series of 15-shot per team and had to be content with second best.

The trio’s effort ensured that the Indian squad finished the World Cup with two medals, with the men’s skeet team bagging a bronze earlier in the tournament.
Kirti, Manisha and Rajeshwari shot a combined score of 444 to make it to the gold medal match along with Russia, who topped the qualifying round with a total of 463. There were a total of seven 25-shot rounds, five of which had been shot in the previous days.
On Thursday, all three Indian women shot scores of 20 or more in the final two qualifying rounds, with Manisha top-scoring for them with 158 out of 175 shots.
The men’s trap team however, could not make it to the medal rounds after shooting a combined score of 469 to finish sixth out of 11 teams in the fray.
Russia and Croatia made it to the gold medal match while hosts Egypt and Slovakia were to fight it out for the bronze.



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