Shooting World Cup Munich: Manu Bhaker, Samrat Rana add silver in pistol mixed team as India ends second in medal tally

New Delhi, May 30 (IANS) The pair of Manu Bhaker and Samrat Rana were pipped by World No 1 and defending World Champions Yao Qianxun and Hu Kai of China by just 0.3 points as the Indian pair secured silver in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event on the final day of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol at the Olympiaschießanlage in Munich, Germany.

With this silver, India finished second in the medal tally with two gold and two silver medals behind China, which secured four gold and three bronze medals.

Manu and Samrat had a slow start, shooting 100.0 after the first series of five shots each to be in third out of the four team finals, with Samrat hitting 51.0 and Manu a 49.0. Manu caught her rhythm in the second series, hitting a high 51.5 while Samrat’s 49.9 helped the pair to leap into second.

The Indian pair cut down the lead with the Chinese pair to just 0.1 at the end of the third series, with Manu hitting an impressive 51.8 while Samrat followed it up with another good score of 50.7. Both shooters took a huge 2.2-point lead at the end of the first elimination series of three shots, with scores of 30.9 from Manu and 30.5 from Samrat. The Chinese pair faltered with scores of 29.7 and 29.4.

Samrat hit 31.2 in the next elimination series, but Manu faltered with shots of 9.3 and 8.8 in her 19th and 20th shots, allowing the Chinese to catch up. At the end of the 21st shot, the 2.2 points lead that the Indians had was wiped out as Yao and Hu took a 0.2 points lead. Shen Yihao and Bu Shuaihang of China were confirmed as the bronze medallists after the series.

Manu started the last series with a 10.6, but Samrat could only manage a low 8.8, which increased the lead of the Chinese pair. Yao did shoot an 8.7 herself in the 23rd shot, but HU Kai compensated for that with three shots in the high 10s. Meanwhile, the Indian pair could only manage to cut short the lead by 0.3 points, confirming their silver medal.

Earlier in the qualification, the second Indian pair of Suruchi Singh and Shravan Kumar finished in tenth place with a combined score of 575-20x, with Suruchi hitting 291-11x and Shravan scoring 284-9x.

Rifle shooters miss out

Earlier in the day, both Indian pairs could not qualify for the medal rounds. Elavenil Valarivan and Arjun Babuta finished in 14th with a combined score of 630.0, while Arya Borse and Shahu Tushar Mane finished two places below in 16th with a total score of 629.6.

The pair of Wang Zifei and Sheng Lihao of China won the gold, while Norway’s Jeanette Hegg Duestad and Jon-Hermann Hegg won silver, and the second Chinese pair of Han Jiayu and Ma Sihan won bronze.

–IANS

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