The Indian skeet shooting squad has arrived in Cyprus, for the year’s third International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Shotgun stage, set to begin in the capital city of Nicosia from Saturday.
The Indian shooting team ended third in the standings as the Peru International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup wrapped up proceedings on Monday, with Australia taking the final gold on offer in the mixed team trap event.
The Indian shooter shot a total of 33-hits in the 10-series of five rapid-fire shots final, finishing one hit behind China’s Sun Yujie, who won back-to-back world cup golds in the event.
The pair of Suruchi and Saurabh Chaudhary struck gold at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun in Lima, Peru, winning the 10m air pistol mixed team title 17-9 over the Chinese pairing of Yao Qianxun and Hu Kai.
China’s Hu Kai won gold with a score of 246.4, just 0.1 off the world record, while Brazil’s Olympic medalist Felipe Almeida Wu won silver, as Saurabh settled for bronze with 219.1, bowing out after the 22nd shot.
The 24-year-old Indian shotgun shooter will come back on Thursday for the last two rounds of qualification, with the final slated later in the day.
Maheshwari went down to Chile’s Francisca Crovetto Chadid 3-4 in a shoot-off for gold after both were tied at 54 hits in the 60-shot final.
Maheshwari Chauhan secured a Paris quota for India in the women’s skeet event at the ISSF Final Olympic Shotgun Qualification Championship in Doha, Qatar on Sunday.
Vivaan Kapoor, Zoravar Singh Sandhu and Prithviraj Tondaiman in the men’s trap event managed to progress beyond the qualifying rounds.
Both Palak, in the first qualification relay, and Sainyam, in the second, shot identical scores of 578 to take the sixth and seventh qualification spots, giving India a boost in their endeavour to grab one of the two available quota places.
