Young Akhil Sheoran wins the gold medal in men’s 50m rifle 3 position at ISSF Shooting World Cup 2018 in Guadalajara, Mexico. The 22 year-old shooter thus, became the fourth young Indian shooter to win a medal on ISSF World Cup debut.
Sheoran clinched the gold and scored 455.6 points in total to finish 3.6 points ahead of second-placed Bernhard Pickl of Austria. Hungarian rifle legend Istvan Peni got 442.3 points to take the bronze medal.
The man from Baghpat(UP) scored 151.6 points in kneeling, 155.1 in prone and 148.9 in the standing elimination round of the final.
In case you don’t know, International Rifle events that occur in three positions are conducted with an equal number of shots fired from the Prone, the Standing and the Kneeling positions, always in that order.
This will add 4th gold medal to India’s medal tally as they look to consolidate their position at number 1 with 9 medals.
Earlier in the qualification round where each shooter shoots 40-shots in each position, the experienced Sanjeev Rajput shot a solid 1176 out of a possible 1200 to qualify second behind Peni who shot 1178. However, he finished fourth in an eight-man final round. He got 430.9 points – 11.4 points behind bronze medalist Peni.
Sheoran was fourth in qualification with 1174 points while young Swapnil Kusale, competing in his first World Cup, shot 1168 for seventh place to ensure all three Indians made the eight-man final round.
Meanwhile, Manu Bhaker has qualified in fourth place for the women’s 25m Pistol Final, shooting a score of 581. Bhaker has allready won 2 gold medals in the ongoing world cup. Read: India’s young shooting sensation Manu Bhaker strikes successive 2nd gold.
Annu Raj Singh shot 575 to finish 10th. Anna Korakaki, the reigning Olympic Champion in the event and Heidi Gerber, the Rio Bronze medallist, are also among the eight who have qualified.
(PTI Inputs)
