Shooting World Cup: Saurabh Chaudhary’s bronze finish secures first medal for India
Lima: Former Asian Games and Youth Olympic champion Saurabh Chaudhary, added yet another World Cup medal to his bulging kitty, winning bronze in the 10m air pistol men’s event on competition day one of the year’s second International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun stage, at the Las Palmas shooting range in Lima, Peru.
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.
Earlier, two Indians, Saurabh and Varun Tomar had made the top eight finals cut, with the former finishing fifth with a score of 578 in qualification, while the latter clinched eighth with 576.
Both Indians also made a bright start to the final with Saurabh in second and Varun in third after the first five shots as a second Chinese Xie Yu, took the early lead.
However, the Indian duo found it hard to hit the 10-ring thereafter as Hu threatened to pull away after the first two singles shots as Austrian Richard Zechmeister was the first to be eliminated.
German legend and former Olympic and World champion Christian Reitz was next out, as a 10.9 from Tomar for his 14th took him up to seventh. Saurabh also took a first step to move higher up the ladder with a 10.7 for his 14th shot.
The nine-syndrome got to Tomar again thereafter as Saurabh with a 10.2 and a 10.6, moved up to second after the 16th.
As Xie bowed out in fifth after the 18th, the battle for the minor medals was clearly between Saurabh and Wu as Kai and Varun seemed on opposite ends of the spectrum.
The fight expected never came in the 21st and 22nd shots from Saurabh, as he hit 9.6 for both, paving the way for Wu to take silver. Kai in the end missed the world record by a whisker.