Junior World Cup: Shambhavi, Ojasvi 1-2 in women’s air rifle; India back at top spot in Suhl

New Delhi, May 24 Two 16-year-old women Indian rifle shooters, Shambhavi Kshirsagar and Ojasvi Thakur, went hammer and tongs at each other to the delight of the packed final hall en route to a stunning 1-2 in the women’s 10m air rifle final in the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany on Saturday evening.

Their effort gave India back the lead at the top of the medal tally at the International Shooting Sports Centre range in Suhl and they now have a total of two gold, three silver, and three bronze medals to show for their efforts over five days of competition.

For the record, Shambhavi shot 253.0 in the 24-shot final for gold while Ojasvi was 1.2 behind in silver. Early leader Carlota Salafia of Italy was third with 230.5, bowing out after 22 shots.

It was, all in all, a fruitful day for India, with Naraen Pranav winning bronze in the men’s 10m air rifle and Mukesh Nelavalli following it up with a bronze in the men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol.

Stunning 1-2 in women’s air rifle

If morning shows the day, the signs were pretty clear early as the two Indian shooters topped the 60-shot qualification round with super-hot scores. Shambhavi shot 633.1 in the first relay as Ojasvi trumped her with a 633.2 to top the field.

With a field for the final having world number one and double Paris medalist Huang Yuting of China, besides Olympian Manon Herbulot of France, it was going to be a tough final.

The two Indians, however, shot like a breeze and seemingly made like work of the high-quality match, firing high 10s after 10s to snuff out the challenge of the field quite brutally in the end.

The duo were joint second after the first five-shot series, first and third respectively after the second, and by the 12th single shot were 1-2 but with the field still closely huddled. While Shambhavi never let go of her lead, Ojasvi did go down to fourth momentarily after the 16th shot, but a perfect 10.9 for her 17th took her back up to third, and she never looked back after that.

Shambhavi herself was in tremendous form firing a 10.9 for her 16th and by the end of the 18th the two Indians were firmly back in gold, silver position.

To her credit, Carlotta did pose a late challenge to Ojasvi but was duly buried as the Indians closed out with five high 10s in their last eight shots collectively. The lowest they had shot over 48 shots was a 10.0, never going into the 9s even once. It was an exhibition.

Mukesh shoots a bronze

The gold in the men’s 25m Rapid-Fire Pistol went to Thomas Chinours of France after he overcame Lukasz Kopiwoda of Poland in the second shoot-off round for gold. Both had tied for 26 hits after the eight series of five rapid-fire shots. The bronze was picked up by India’s Mukesh Nelavalli, who shot 22, bowing out after the seventh series.

After starting 13th on the grid following a sedate precision round on Friday, Mukesh shot a 289 in the second rapid-fire round on Saturday morning to log 573 as his final total. He then had to wait till the last group finished to confirm his place among the top six.

Despite four athletes ending on the same score of 573, Mukesh scraped through to clinch the sixth and final spot, on the higher count of hits in the inner 10 ring.

If that was any indication, the final proved to be even more pulsating. At the outset, the complex electronic scoring system malfunctioned, and it was difficult in the initial stages to gauge the exact score of the six athletes.

As things settled from the third series of the eight-series of five rapid-fire shots final, it turned out that Mukesh had been among the slow starters with one of the two Hungarians, Mate Redecsi, leading in the early stages before Chinours and Kopiwoda caught up with him.

A perfect five in the fourth series redeemed Mukesh and he followed it up with a four-hits series as the Kazakh Kiril Tsukanov became the first to be eliminated with the Akos Karoly Nagy, the second Hungarian following suit.

Another five in the sixth series tied him at 19 hits with Mate, and the duo went to the match’s first shoot-off. One round would not be enough as both shot three greens, but the Indian shot three again in the second shoot-off round as the Hungarian succumbed with two hits to his name. India’s sixth medal and second of the day was assured.

The top two were a bit beyond reach as Mukesh wound up with three more points to settle for bronze, however, both Chinours and Kopiwada had to be separated yet again by two more shoot-off rounds, with the Frenchman eventually prevailing.

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