ISSF Junior World Championship | Manu Bhaker in final of women's 10m air pistol

The junior India Shooting team is expected to win a rich haul of medals on Thursday, competition day two, of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Championship, currently underway in the Peruvian capital of Lima. Qualification rounds of six individual events, all Olympic disciplines, took place on opening day on Wednesday, where as many as 12 Indians made the finals cut.

All the six finals are scheduled for day two with the Indians already looking at four gold medals in the corresponding team events. Rudrankksh Patil, Dhanush Srikanth and Paarth Makhija made it to the Junior Men’s 10M Air Rifle finals with scores of 630.2, 629.6 and 629.2 respectively in qualification, which placed them overall second, third and fourth. The top eight make the finals.

Similarly in the Junior Women’s 10M Air Rifle Mehuli Ghosh led a trio of Indians into the finals. Her 630.9 was overall third while Ramita shot 629.8 and Nisha Kanwar 629.1 to make it through in fourth and fifth positions. In the Junior Men’s 10M Air Pistol Naveen topped the standings with a 584 to make the finals cut. Sarabjot Singh also shot the same score to finish second on lesser inner 10s.

Vijaveer Sidhu was the third Indian to make it through, finishing fourth with a score of 581. Rhythm Sangwan was the best Indian in the Junior Women’s 10M Air Pistol finishing second with a score of 577. Manu Bhaker qualified in third place with 574 while Esha Singh shot 572 to qualify in overall fifth position.

In the Junior Men’s and Women’s Skeet, two rounds of qualification is yet to be played before the top six move into the finals.  In the Team events of the Junior Men’s and Women’s Air Rifle and Air Pistol, the Indian teams are in gold medal positions in all the events currently. The final results are yet to be declared.