Junior World Cup Shooting: Abhinav, Gautami win India’s second gold

Abhinav Shaw and Gautami Bhanot teamed up in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event to give India their second gold

Suhl: Abhinav Shaw and Gautami Bhanot teamed up in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event to give India their second gold of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Junior with a 17-7 win over the French pairing of Oceanne Mueller and Romain Aufrere in the gold medal match on Sunday.

The Indian pair had qualified second to the French pair but turned the tables on them in the final. India now has two gold medals, one silver and one bronze from the World Cup after two days of competition.

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India won two more medals on the day, a silver and a bronze, coming in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event through the pairing of Sainyam and Abhinav Chaudhary and Suruchi Inder Singh and Shubham Bisla, respectively.

While the former duo went down 12-16 to the Korean pair of Kim Juri and Kim Kanghyun in the gold medal match, the latter won their bronze medal match over Uzebkistan’s Nigina Saidkulova and Mukhammad Kamalov 16-14 in what was a nail-biter.

Earlier Sainyam, who won the individual women’s Air Pistol gold on Saturday and Abhinav had topped the qualification with a combined effort of 578, while Suruchi and Inder had finished fourth with a score of 571, to make it to the medal matches.

Among other Indians in the fray, the pair of Saalim and Swati Chowdhury finished seventh in the Air Rifle Mixed Team event with a combined score of 624.3, where teammates Abhinav and Gautami posted 628.3 to qualify in second.

In the skeet competitions, the Indians could not make it beyond the qualification rounds. In junior men’s skeet, Ritu Raj Bundela shot 116 for a 19th-place finish while Abhay Singh Sekhon ended on a score of 115 to be placed 21st. Munek Batulla was 26th after having shot 113 while Harmehar Lally was further back with a score of 111.

In junior women’s skeet, Raiza Dhilon was the best Indian on show, finishing 11th with a score of 108. Muffaddal Deesawala was 14th with 106 and Sanjana Sood, 16th with 106.