The Indian men’s 10-metre air pistol team of Shiva Narwal, Sarabjot Singh and Arjun Singh Cheema secured a bronze medal at the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship held in Baku, Azerbaijan. Shooters Esha Singh and Shiva Narwal brought cheers to the India camp, clinching the 10m air pistol mixed team gold by defeating Turkey in the final on Friday.
The Indian duo defeated the Turkish pair of Ilayda Tarhan and Yusuf Dikec 16-10 in the gold-medal match to take the country’s medals tally to two. India are currently placed second on the medals table with a gold and a bronze medal, while China is leading the tally with five gold and two bronze medals. Shiva top scored for India with 579 points and was followed by Sarabjot (578 points) and Arjun Singh (577 points). This combined to a total of 1,734 points, which led to India getting the third position. China secured the gold medal with a total of 1,749 points and Germany got the silver with a total of 1,743 points. But the individual scores of Indian shooters were not good enough to earn them spots in the men’s 10-m air pistol final featuring eight players. Shiva was the best-placed player for India at 17th, with Sarabjot at 18th and Arjun at 24th
position.
Indian women’s shooting players failed to win anything. In the 10-m air pistol team event, the trio of Esha Singh, Palak Gulia and Divya TS failed to secure a medal. The trio also did not perform well enough to even reach the final of the individual event. Indian rifle shooters came up with below-par performances, failing to cross the qualification stage in the 10m air rifle mixed team event on Friday. The pair of Mehuli Ghosh (316.0) and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (314.2) aggregated 630.2 to finish ninth in the qualification round, while the second Indian pair of Ramita (313.7) and Divyansh Singh Panwar (314.6) aggregated 628.3 to end at 17th place among 77 teams. Only the top four teams in the event make it to the finals. The Chinese pair of Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao, with an aggregate score of 632.7, topped the qualification followed by Iran (632.5), Israel (631.4) and France (631.4). China went on to seal gold defeating Iran 16-2, while France won the bronze beating Israel 17-9.
