India tops ISSF Junior World Cup with 16 medals in Cairo

India finished on top of the medal table at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Cairo with 16 medals. Hemant Burman won silver, while Zuhair Khan and Addya Katyal secured bronze in the trap mixed team event

Hyderabad: Hemant Burman won silver in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions men’s event, and the pair of Zuhair Khan and Addya Katyal won bronze in the trap mixed team event as India completed the ISSF Junior World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun in Cairo (Egypt) on top of the table with a total of 16 medals, including five gold, six silver and five bronze.

In the first finals of the day, Hemant Burman won silver after shooting 351.7 across the three positions in the 50m 3 Positions event. The 18-year-old had qualified for the final in seventh place with a score of 578-24x and was joined by Vedant Nitin Waghmare and Rohit Kanyan in the finals, who shot 581 and 580 respectively. Rohit finished in sixth place in the final with a score of 311.9 and Vedant finished in seventh with a score of 300.5.

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Oleg Noskov of Kazakhstan, with a new world junior record score of 355.6, won the gold medal, and Nikita Solokov of Uzbekistan won bronze with a score of 341.2. The other Indians in qualification, Manvendra Singh Shekhawat (578-23x), Kushagra Singh Rajawat (576-24x) and Hithesh Srinivasan (574-26x), finished outside the top eight.

In the final event of the Junior World Cup, the pair of Zuhair Khan and Addya Katyal secured the bronze medal with a final score of 19 after qualifying for the medal rounds with a qualification score of 137. The pair, who were in silver medal positions after the first two series, faltered in the third series, with Addya missing four of her five shots and Zuhair missing one, which pushed them down to the bronze medal positions.

Bence Doeboerhegyi and Anna Nyitrai of Hungary won the gold medal with a new world junior record score of 32, while neutral athletes Ramir Nikolaev and Kseniia Tatarinova won silver with a score of 25.

In the 50m Rifle Prone women’s event, all Indians — Tejal Nathawat, Yugeshwari Bais, Anushka Thokur and Khwaish Sharma — finished outside the medal positions.

The Indian junior athletes will now shift their focus to the ISSF Junior World Championship, the blue riband event in the calendar, which will be held at Suhl in Germany in June.