Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar wins silver at ISSF World Cup Final

India’s Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar won silver in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions at the ISSF World Cup Final in Doha. Czechia’s Jiri Privratsky took gold, while Liu Yukun claimed bronze. It was India’s fourth medal of the event

Hyderabad: India’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) champion Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar won silver in the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Final (WCF) Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun on Sunday at Doha’s Lusail Shooting Complex, completing a full set of medals at all possible world and continental championships in the sport.

The Indian, a double Olympian, former junior world champion, reigning Asian champion and fresh from a world championship silver last month, finished behind Czechia’s Jiri Privratsky, who shot 414.2 in the final played in the new ISSF format of 40 shots, leaving Tomar 0.9 behind. Olympic champion Liu Yukun won bronze.

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Aishwary shot 595 in qualification to finish second behind China’s Tian Jiaming, who blazed the Lusail ranges with a world record 598. Athlete of the Year Jon-Hermann Hegg of Norway and Hungarian ace Istvan Peni were among the other top eight, which also included three Chinese shooters.

Aishwary was fourth with a score of 102.8 after the 10 shots in the first kneeling position, shot over two series of five shots each. In the next 10 shots of the prone position, Aishwary found his momentum and climbed to second on the leaderboard with strong series of 52.9 and 52.

Privratsky meanwhile was charting his own course, 3.3 ahead of Tomar at that stage. Olympic champion Liu was third with 20 standing position shots still to be played.

Tomar then outgunned Privratsky over the next 10 shots to bring the difference down to 1.5. After the 31st shot, it went down to 0.5 as Privratsky struggled to find the 10-ring.

Peni and Tian were the first to exit the final as Aishwary went into the lead after the 33rd shot.

Frenchman Romain Aufrere then lost the battle for bronze to Olympic champion Liu, as Privratsky caught up with Tomar and went 0.5 ahead again after the 37th shot with a couple of high 10s, while Tomar faltered slightly.

The gap was just 0.3 ahead of the final two shots. Tomar fired a 10.1 to the Czech’s 10.3 and then a 10.6 for his 40th, but Privratsky held firm to clinch gold, his third ISSF gold of the year.

Aishwary ended the year strong after a barren first half, finishing with an Asian Championship gold, a world championship silver and a World Cup Final silver. It was also India’s fourth medal of the Doha WCF.

Sift Kaur Samra in the women’s 3P and Manu Bhaker in the women’s 25m pistol did not move beyond the qualification stage. Sift shot 584 in her relay to finish 10th, while Manu scored 581 to finish ninth in her qualification round.