India picks up four more gold at Suhl Junior World Cup

Top of Podium L-R- Paarth Makhija, Rudrankssh Patil and Umamaesh Maddineni after winning the Junior Men’s 10M Air Rifle Team gold at Suhl, Germany flanked by silver and bronze medal winning teams.

Khel Today Bureau

New Delhi: India picked up four more gold at the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany, winning both the Women’s and Men’s Air Rifle and Air Pistol Team events on Friday, day four of competitions. That took India’s total haul of medals from the premiere World Junior Shooting competition to 14 medals including eight gold and six silver medals till date. Australia, France, Poland and Bulgaria have distributed the other four gold medals on offer between them till now as India continue to dominate the Rifle and Pistol disciplines.

India’s gold rush on Friday began with the Men’s 10M Air Rifle trio of Rudrankksh Patil, Paarth Makhija and Umamahesh Maddineni beat the Spanish trio of Jesus Oviedo, Adrian Diaz and Jorge Estevez 16-8 in the gold medal match. It was a second individual gold in the competition for both Rudrankksh and Paarth who had won the individual Men’s 10M Air Rifle and the Mixed Team Rifle competitions earlier respectively.

It was then the turn of the Junior Women’s 10M Air Pistol team of Manu Bhaker, Palak and Esha Singh who outplayed Georgians Salome Prodiashvili, Mariam Abramishvili and Mariami Prodiashvili by the same 16-8 margin.

Then the Air Rifle Women’s Team consisting of Arya Borse, Zeena Khitta and Ramita downed the Korean trio of Yeeun AN, Eunji Kwon and Jeongin Jang 17-9 in the title decider to give India her third gold of the day.

Finally, it was the Junior Men’s Air Pistol team of Saurabh Chaudhary, Shiva Narwal and Sarabjot Singh who outclassed Uzbekistan’s Mukhammad Kamalov, Veniamin Nikitin and Umidbek Komolbekov 17-9 to clinch India’s fourth gold of the day.

In fact, India have also reached the gold medal round of the Junior Men’s and Women’s Trap team competitions and have assured themselves of two more silver medals at the very least.

Shardul Vihan, Arya Vansh Tyagi and Vivaan Kapoor will clash with the US trio of Patrick Thompson, Ernest Carvahlo and Christian Kutz later in the day for the Junior Men’s Trap team title.

Then India’s Preeti Rajak, Sabeera Haris and Bhavya Tripathi will be up against the Italian trio of Marika Patera, Sofia Gori and Sofia Littame in the Junior Women’s Trap Team gold medal encounter for a shot at World Cup glory.