Gabala (Azerbaijan), Aug 10 (IANS) London Olympics bronze medallist Gagan Narang finished fifth in the men’s 10 metre Air Rifle at the ongoing shooting World Cup here on Monday.
Gagan, who is recuperating from a neck injury, struggled in the initial rounds, making it to the eight-man final in the eighth position. He gave a better account of himself in the final, moving up three positions with a score of 144.5.
Cao Yifei of China won the gold with a final round score of 207.4, while Kim Sang Do (206.9) of South Korea finished with the silver and Petar Gorsa (186.5) of Croatia bagged the bronze.
Former Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra, however, had a poor outing. He finished 14th in qualifying and could not make it to the final. Both Abhinav and Gagan have however secured quota places for next year’s Rio Olympics and would not be eligible for any more quotas as a result.
The Indian men’s 50m Pistol troika of Jitu Rai, Prakash Nanjappa and Omkar Singh, looked in ominous form in their respective elimination rounds to comfortably make it to the qualification rounds slated for Tuesday.
Jitu, another shooter who has already secured his Olympic quota, shot 558 to finish fifth in his round, while both Omkar and Prakash finished third in their elimination rounds shooting scores of 557 and 555 respectively.
In the women’s 25m Pistol event however, the Indian trio of Annu Raj Singh, Anisa Sayyed and Rahi Sarnobat came away with disappointing performances. Annu Raj was 20th with a score of 288, while Anisa was 49th with 285. Rahi Sarnobat ended her day in the 57th position shooting a score of 284. They move to the Rapid fire stage of the event on Tuesday.
In the women’s 10m Air Rifle event, all three Indian shooters failed to qualify for the final. Pooja Ghatkar shot the best score among the three, finishing with 413.8 to stand 30th. Apurvi Chandela ended 45th with 412.6 while Ayonika Paul registered a score of 411.2 to lie 57th.
