ISSF World Cup Finals Day 2: Europeans win 3 Golds, Akhil Sheoran bags Bronze
Team China continues to lead the medal tally at the ISSF World Cup Finals at the end of Day 2 with India's Akhil Sheoran taking home Bronze.
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Istvan Peni, Jiri Privratsky and Akhil Sheoran were placed first, second and third respectively in Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions (Image via Open Source/X)
European shooters won three of the four Gold medals on offer on Day 2 of the ISSF World Cup Finals being held in New Delhi. Chinese shooters had won three Golds on Day 1.
For hosts India, the only medal came via Akhil Sheoran who won Bronze in Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions. The rest of the Indian squad suffered ever-familiar near-misses, a trend that has become a routine occurrence for the contingent.
China lead the medal tally at the end of Day 2 with 4 Golds. India are tied sixth with a Silver and Bronze.
Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions
Hungary’s Istvan Peni, who had won Silver in Men’s 10m AR yesterday, managed to upgrade the color of his second 2024 WCF medal.
Peni (Qualification score 592-43x) got into the lead right from the kneeling round of the Men’s 50m Rifle 3P finals and was leading by 4.1 points at the end of the prone stage. Despite a slight dip in the standing round, he was never really troubled for the lead and won the match with a score of 465.3 against second-placed Czech Jiri Privratsky’s (593-31x) 464.2.
This was Privratsky’s second medal of the 2024 WCF after winning the Bronze yesterday in Men’s 10m AR.
The real battle took place for the Bronze medal after Kazakhstan’s Konstantin Malinovskiy (589-36x), who was in second place after the prone round, shot a series of 9s in the standing stage to be eliminated fifth.
Akhil Sheoran (589-35x) was the rare Indian on the right side of a close contest as he hit a series of clutch 10+ shots in the standing stage to emerge 0.2 points ahead of Olympic Champion Liu Yukun (589-31x) of China, who also shot a number of 10s but finished fourth at Delhi behind Akhil Sheoran.
World Champion Alexander Schmirl (593-37x) of Austria was sixth, 2016 Indian Olympian Chain Singh (590-32x) was seventh and Finland’s Aleksi Leppa (589-27x) placed eighth. Last year’s WCF winner Lucas Kryzs of France was among the shooters who could not qualify for the finals.
Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions
Denmark’s Rikke Maeng Ibsen (590-32x) emerged victorious in an unpredictable Women’s 50m Rifle 3P final that saw the lead being exchanged by a number of shooters. Ibsen had won Bronze in the 2022 WCF in Cairo.
China’s Zhang Qiongyue (592-38x), the World Champion and Paris Olympic Bronze medalist, was the leader after the kneeling and prone rounds, but was eliminated fifth after a disastrous standing round.
Norway’s Jeanette Hegg Duestad (591-35x), the 2023 WCF winner in this event, then took a comfortable lead, but a series of four poor standing shots, including an 8.3 against a 10.8, from Ibsen, led to the latter taking over the lead and winning Gold with a score of 466.2 and Duestad having to settle for Silver with 465.6.
China’s Han Jiayu (593-41x) posted a strong comeback in the standing round after an indifferent kneeling and prone series to win Bronze ahead of fourth-placed German Jolyn Beer (589-28x). Mongolia’s Yesugen Oyunbat (589-26x), the Paris Olympic finalist, was sixth, Germany’s Anna Janssen (588-34x) was seventh and China’s Xia Siyu (587-31x) was eighth.
India’s Ashi Chouksey narrowly missed out on qualifying based on inner 10s after a score of 587-30x. The other Indian, Nischal, was tenth, while the Olympic Champion Chiara Leone of Switzerland also could not qualify.
Women’s 25m Pistol
Germany’s Josefin Eder (582-19x) won the Women’s 25m Pistol Gold against a field that included Olympic and WCF medalists.
Eder, who qualified for the finals by the narrowest of margins, finished with a score of 36 and was consistent enough to edge out French Olympic Silver medalist Camille Jedrzejewski (588-30x), who had to settle for Silver with 35 points after winning Gold yesterday in Women’s 10m AP. China’s Feng Sixuan (589-29x), who was the Gold medalist in last year’s WCF, won Bronze this time.
Both Jedrzejewski and Feng maintained their nerves in shoot-offs that determined the Silver and Bronze while India’s Rhythm Sangwan (584-16x) suffered from the same unpredictable rhythms that affected her 10m AP performance yesterday.
Rhythm was out of medal contention before making a strong comeback to tie for second with a perfect sixth series. However, a mistake in the fourth-place shoot-off allowed Jedrzejewski and Feng to pull ahead, leaving Rhythm in fourth place.
The World Champion Doreen Vennekamp (587-27x) of Germany finished fifth despite being among the leaders at one stage. India’s Simranpreet Kaur Brar (585-20x) finished sixth after a shoot-off.
Seventh place went to Olympic Champion Yang Ji-in (590-26x) of South Korea and eighth place went to Veronika Major of Hungary, the Olympic Bronze medalist. China’s Zhao Nan, the Paris Olympic finalist, was among the shooters who failed to make the cut for the finals.
Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol
Olympic Champion Li Yuehong (588-23x) of China won yet another Gold with a dominating performance in the Men’s 25m RFP finals in Delhi. Li scored five perfect series on the way to Gold with a score of 34.
Germany’s Florian Peter (587-26x), who was the winner in the 2023 WCF, had to be content with Silver with a score of 30. China’s Wang Xinjie (586-24x), the Olympic Bronze medalist, won Bronze yet again, though he was in tied-second place before a poor sixth series.
The decorated German duo of Oliver Geis (583-23x) and Christian Reitz (584-21x) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, while Olympic finalist Massimo Spinella of Italy was placed sixth.
For India, Vijayveer Sidhu was among the top six throughout the Qualifications before a terrible final 4-second series of 91 led to him finishing seventh and out of final contention. It was a virtual repeat of his Paris 2024 performance, showing yet again that lessons have not been learned by the Indian pistol squad.
Another Indian, Anish Bhanwala, who had won Bronze in the WCF last year, could not qualify this time.
Indian Shotgun Updates
Vivaan Kapoor in Men’s Trap, Anantjeet Singh Naruka and Mairaj Ahmad Khan in Men’s Skeet, and Ganemat Sekhon in Women’s Skeet have all managed to qualify for their respective finals scheduled to be held on Thursday.
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