Manu, Mitharval finish fourth

Changwon (S  Korea),  April 26

The Indian duo of Manu Bhaker and Om Prakash Mitharwal missed out on a medal and finished fourth in the 10m mixed team air pistol event after shooting a qualification world record in the ISSF World Cup here on Thursday.

This was India’s fourth fourth-place finish in the World Cup. The pair had earlier shot a qualification world record, shooting a combined 778 to claim the record by a point from Germany’s Christian and Sandra Reitz, who won silver after qualifying in fifth place.

The Chinese pair of Xiaojing Ji and Jiayu Wu won gold with a world record score of 487.7 in the final. Serbia’s Damir Mikec and Zorana Arunovic won bronze. The Indian pair of Heena Sidhu and Shahzar Rizvi finished 19th in qualification with a score of 762.

So far, only Rizvi has won a medal — in the men’s 10m air pistol. This will be the same range where the World Championships, the first quota competition for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, will be held four months later. 

Meanwhile, Sanjeev Rajput made it to the final of the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions event but finished eighth eventually. Rio Olympics silver medallist Sergey Kamenskiy of Russia won the gold. Akhil Sheoran and Swapnil Kusale finished 17th and 24th, respectively. — PTI