ISSF World Cup | Indian medal hopes pinned on Heena Sidhu and Sanjeev Rajput after Jitu Rai bows out

ISSF World Cup | Indian medal hopes pinned on Heena Sidhu and Sanjeev Rajput after Jitu Rai bows out

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The hopes of a medal at the ISSF World Cup now rests on the shoulders of Heena Sidhu and Sanjeev Rajput after Jitu Rai and Tejaswini Sawant failed to make it into the final of their respective events. Jitu ended up 10th on the board while Tejaswini could only muster a final position of 15.

On Monday, Jitu Rai failed to qualify for the final of the Men's 10m Air Pistol at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup, despite scoring a 581 in qualifying - his second best score at a World Cup. Jitu had a chance to qualify for the final but his score of two 9s in the 57th and 58th shot proved crucial in the end and Turkey’s Tugrul Ozer went on to qualify at the eighth position with a score of 582 but with a significantly lesser number of inner 10s than the Indian.

In the Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions event too, India’s poor day continued as Tejaswini Sawant fell short of qualifying mark. Tejaswini shot a high of 199 out of 200 in the prone position, but even that was not enough as her qualification round score of 584 was two behind 586, recorded by as many as three final qualifiers.

The other shooters in the event Prakash Nanjappa and Anmol Jain, finished 34th and 36th positions respectively with identical scores of 576 while N Gaayathri finished 38th with a score of 579. Elizabeth Susan Koshy shot 576 to end in 55th place in the Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions.

19-year old Ukranian youngster Pavlo Korostylov won the Gold in the event, making it his first ever World Cup Gold in the senior ranks. Japanese former World Champion Tomoyoki Matsuda won Silver and Korean legend Jongoh Jin won Bronze.

In the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol, Neeraj Kumar was the best Indian finisher in 18th place shooting a score of 578. Harpreet Singh shot a point less to secure 21st spot while Olympian Gurpreet Singh ended in 31st position with a score of 572.

On Tuesday, the fifth and final competition day of the World Cup will take place. It will feature the Women's 10m Air Pistol and Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions finals. Former World number one Heena Sidhu and three-time Olympian Sanjeev Rajput are now India's remaining hopes for a medal.

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