ISSF World Cup: No podium finish for India on day 2

New Delhi: Indian shooters Zoravar Singh Sandhu and Neeraj Kumar couldn’t capitalise on home advantage, failing to reach the podium in the men’s trap and 25 metre rapid fire pistol finals, respectively, on the second day of the ISSF Combined World Cup here on Saturday. In the men’s trap qualifying, Sandhu impressed shooting 118 out of 125 to finish fourth and enter the final round. But he failed to improve on his qualifying position, remaining fourth in the final round too, after posting a 28 out of 35.

A bronze medal was in sight for Sandhu, but he missed his 30th shot to bow out of contention. Making a comeback to the sport after a long layoff Birendeep Sodhi was 33rd in trap qualification. The 22-year-old Kumar, having entered his first World Cup final, finished sixth at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range after shooting a total of nine targets. The first one to be eliminated in the six-man final, Neeraj was the only Indian shooter to have made the cut after Gurpreet Singh and Harpreet Singh failed to qualify.

No Indian was in the final round of the10m air rifle mixed team event. Deepak Kumar and Meghana Sajjanar was the best-placed Indian duo at 10th in qualifying. Ravi Kumar and Vinita Bhardwaj were 18th.  Simone Ambrosio, 19, from Italy in his debut World Cup, set a world record to win gold after scoring in 46 targets. Italian and Giovanni Pellielo got silver, while Spain’s Alberto Fernandez bagged bronze in the trap event. Lao Jiajie (31) and Lin Junmin (31) of China clinched gold and silver, respectively in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol.