Shahzar claims silver, opens India’s account
World record holder Shahzar Rizvi on Tuesday claimed India’s first medal at the ongoing ISSF World Cup here, winning the 10m air pistol silver, while the Commonwealth Games’ medal-winning duo of Jitu Rai and Om Prakash Mitharwal could not even qualify for the final.
Rizvi won the silver in the 10m air pistol event on day three of the year’s second World Cup (Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun stage). He missed the gold by 0.2 points to Russia’s Artem Chernousov. Samuil Donkov of Bulgaria won the bronze.
“Happy Bday to legend & inspiration to every sport person @sachin_rt (Sachin Tendulkar) sir. And what a day I myself have won Silver Medal in #ISSFWC changwon (KOR),” Rizvi tweeted.
In the 24-shot final, Rizvi was 0.2 adrift of the Russian before the final shot. Both delivered scores of 10.0 to ensure that the order remained intact.
Artem finished with a score of 240.0 and Rizvi shot 239.8. Bulgarian Samuil Donkov was eliminated in bronze medal position after the 22nd shot on a score of 217.1.
The men’s 10m air pistol saw many a big names fall by the wayside in the 87-strong qualification field.
Rizvi shot a score of 582 out of 600 to make it to the eightman final in the sixth place. However, CWG gold-medallist Rai and bronze-medallist Mitharwal finished 38th and 11th with scores of 575 and 581 respectively.
At the CWG, Mitharwal’s two bronze medals had come in 10m air pistol and 50m pistol events, while Rai had won the 10m air pistol gold.
Olympic champion Xuan Vinh Hoang of Vietnam also shot 575 to bow out in 37th place.
In the Men’s Trap, India’s Manavjit Singh Sandhu shot 117 out of 125 in qualification to be the best Indian finisher in 24th spot, while Kynan Chenai shot 115 to end in 36th place.
Zoravar Singh Sandhu was further back in 41st on a score of 114.
With Rizvi’s silver, India got onto the board at the Changwon International Shooting Centre with eight more finals left to play over the next five competition days.