ISSF World Cup: Saurabh misses out on gold, Abhishek grabs bronze

India had a wonderful day at the tournament on Saturday.

It was so near yet so far for Saurabh Chaudhary, as the Indian shooter missed out on a gold medal in the Men’s 10m Air Pistol event at the ISSF World Cup in Delhi. Abhishek Verma took home the bronze medal for the host nation, while Shahzar Rizvi finished a promising fifth.

It was a shaky start for all the three Indian shooters in the final, with Rizvi and Saurabh landing on fifth and seventh position respectively after the first five shots. However, an inspired second round saw Saurabh move to fourth, while Rizvi went up a spot to set base on fifth. Abhishek meanwhile made consistency his key by maintaining his third spot.

Close contest between Saurabh and Javad Foroughi

As the elimination rounds began, the Indians showed more strong and consistent performances, keeping firmly in touch with Foroughi and Felipe Wu in first and second respectively. The top five remained unchanged after the next two shots, while Saurabh rode his strong performances to switch places with Abhishek after 14 shots in the ISSF World Cup final.

Saurabh moved to within 0.3 points of veteran Foroughi in second and maintained the pressure after the next set of shots. Abhishek meanwhile leapfrogged Felipe Wu to move into third and thereby eliminate the Brazilian, despite having to deal with a technical glitch after one of his shots failed to register.

However, he couldn’t leapfrog Saurabh and had to settle for a bronze with a total of 221.8 points, while the 19-year-old moved 0.2 points closer to Foroughi, as the race for gold boiled down to the last two shots.

Saurabh then proceeded to score a 10.1 with his first shot while Foroughi only managed a 9.6, allowing the Indian shooter to be in a better position. However, with gold firmly in his grasp, the youngster shot 9.8 and finished in second position with a total of 243.2 points. Foroughi celebrated his gold, finishing with a total of 243.6 points after nailing a 10.5 with his last shot.

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