ANKUR MITTAL DOUBLE TRAPS SILVER IN ISSF WORLD CUP
Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu win Mixed Team 10m Air Pistol Gold
NEW DELHI: Ankur Mittal won India her a silver medal of the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup in the Men's Double Trap at Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range after coming second best to James Willet of Australia in a gruelling 80-shot Final.
The Bronze in the event went to Great Britain's James Dedman.
Ankur was strong throughout the Final, starting with a clean score of 30 in the first 30 shots. A double miss in the middle stages was the only blip before he missed two targets in the final 20-shot match-up with Willet to settle for Silver.
James Willet finished with a score of 75 to Ankur's 74 while James Dedman managed a total of 56. Pooja Ghatkar had won India her first medal of the competition when she struck Bronze in the Women's 10m Air Rifle on the opening day of the event.
At the end of competition day four, India is placed fourth in the medal tally with one Silver and one Bronze medal. China continue to lead the standings with Six Gold and four Silver medals while Australia are second with two Gold and Italy third with one Gold and two Silver.
The Indian pair of Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu also won Gold in the Mixed Team 10m Air Pistol event. Four mixed gender team events are being tested out for the first time in an ISSF World Cup with the winners' medals not being counted in the standings.
Jeetu and Heena beat the Japanese duo of Tomayuki Matsuda and Konishi Yukari 5-3 in the Finals. The Bronze went to Team Slovenia.
Earlier, eight out of the 25 participating teams including two teams from each country in many cases, made it through to the Final from the qualifying stage. Jitu and Heena shot a combined score of 475 to qualify in seventh position.
In the other medal event of the day, the Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions, China's Yiwen Zhang won the Gold making it their sixth Gold from Dr. Karni Singh Finals range. Singapore's Jasmine Xer won Silver shooting 453.8 to Zhang's 455.7 while Germany's Eva Roesken won Bronze with a score of 443.6. India's Tejaswini Sawant, who also qualified for the eightwoman Final finished seventh with a Finals score of 402.4.
Competition day five also has two medal events lined up in the Men's 10m Air Pistol and Men's 50m Rifle Prone disciplines. While former Olympic Bronze medallist Gagan Narang will lead India's challenge in Rifle Prone, the country's hopes in the Pistol event will rest on the mercurial Jitu Rai.