Indian juniors begin Lima world championship campaign with two team gold in pistol, Kanak adds to tally with individual bronze

Khel Today Bureau

New Delhi: The Indian juniors began their International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Championship Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun campaign in the Peruvian capital of Lima, with two team golds in the men’s and women’s 10m air pistol even as Kanak notched up the first individual medal with a bronze in the women’s air pistol.

Their efforts meant India took pole position on the medal tally at the end of competition day one, with Romania and Chinese Taipei bagging the two individual golds on offer while five other nations also medalled on the day. It was the junior men’s trio of Umesh Choudhary, Pradhyumn Singh and Mukesh Nelavalli, who put India on board first, after they topped the men’s team competition of the 10m air pistol comfortably with a tally of 1726 points. They were 10 ahead of second placed Romania while Italy took bronze with a 1707.

Umesh and Pradhyumn in-fact made it to the individual finals with third and fourth-placed finishes in the qualification round. Umesh shot 580 and Pradhyumn 578 but missed out on individual medals with sixth and eighth place finishes respectively.

Luca Joldea of Romania won gold and Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Hsiang-Chen won silver. Mukesh was ninth in qualification with a score of 574. It was then the turn of the junior women as the combination of Kanishka Dagar, Lakshita and Anjali Chaudhary tallied 1708 to clinch the junior women’s 10m air pistol team gold. They pipped Azerbaijan by a point and bronze-winning Ukraine by four. Kanishka also made the individual final in third place with a score of 573 along with Kanika who also shot the same score but with lesser inner 10s, to bag the fifth qualifying spot. In the final, while Kanishka finished eighth, Kanak won bronze with a score of 217.6. Chines Taipei’s Chen Yu-Chun won gold, while Slovakia’s Manja Slak won silver. Parmod the fourth Indian in the junior men’s event was 14th with 572 while Gamberya Gowda in the junior men’s shot 557 for a 42nd place finish.