PATIL, NARWAL CLINCH GOLD AT JR SHOOTING WC
Avishek Roy
NEW DELHI: It was a special moment as t wo promising Indian rifle shooters competed for gold at the global stage on Wednesday. Rudrankksh Patil, 18, and Abhinav Shaw, who turned 14 last month, gave top notch performances through the qualification and elimination stages to face off in the 10m air rifle final at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany.
Patil and Shaw both shot high scores in their nervy duel before Rudrankksh, a junior world championships silver medallist, edged past his compatriot 17-13.
“It was a special feeling to be competing with your teammate for gold,” Rudrankksh said from Suhl. “Indians have been performing well and it’s only deserving we go for gold.”
Indians dominated in the 10m air pistol too where Shiva Narwal beat compatriot Sarabjot Singh 16-12 in the final.
Rudrankksh hails from Thane and studies humanities. He had a hectic preparation because of his board exams. “I had to travel to Mumbai from the camp in Delhi three times because of exams. It was very difficult to train effectively,” said Patil, son of a senior police officer.
In September, Patil won silver at the ISSF Junior World Championships in Peru. At the senior nationals in November, he was second behind Tokyo Olympian Divyansh Panwar.
Jyothi breaks two decade old record
NEW DELHI: Indian 100m hurdler Jyothi Yarraji bettered a 20-yearold national record as she clocked 13.23 seconds to win the event at the World Athletics Continental Tour—challenger Category D event in Limassol, Cyprus on Tuesday. The 22-year-old Andhra athlete broke the mark set by Anuradha Biswal in 2002, who had twice clocked 13.38 secs within a fortnight in New Delhi.
Jyothi had clocked 13.03 secs in the 2020 Inter-university Championships in Moodbidri, Karnataka, but the competition was outside the Athletics Federation of India’s (AFI) purview. She clocked 13.09 secs at the Federation Cup in Kozhikode last month, but that too didn’t count because the tailwind was above the permissible limit.