Sandhu's chances brighten in shooting, Jitu fails

Rio de Janeiro, April 17: Mavjit Sandhu rallied to the third place after Day two of qualification in the Men’s Trap shooting event at the ongoing Intertiol Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup. Sandhu scored 72 out of 75 at the Rio di Janerio’s Olympic Shooting Centre on Saturday, according to a tiol Rifle Association of India (NRAI) release on Sunday. He began in the eighth position, shot a 24 to match second placed Briton Edward Ling’s overall score but two behind Alberto Ferndez (ranked number two in the world) of Spain who is on top with 74 points.

Meanwhile, Jitu Rai, World No.1 in 50M pistol, rrowly missed out on the fils of the Men’s 10M Air Pistol event.

Jitu shot a score of 580 in qualification to finish ninth, missing out on a top eight fils berth.

Li Du of Chi won the Rio ISSF World Cup’s first gold medal in the Women’s 10M Air Rifle event. Daria Dovi of Russia and Seli Gschwandtner of Germany won the silver and bronze respectively. India’s best finish in the event came from Pooja Ghatkar, who secured the 11th position with a score of 417.2 in qualification, a mere 0.3 points away from the fils mark. Ayonika Paul came in 13th with 416.4 while Apurvi Chandela finished 20th with a score of 415.7.

In other Indian performances of the day, Gurpreet Singh in the Men’s 10M Pistol finished in the 17th place shooting 577 while Prakash njappa in the same event shot 569 to end in the 50th position.

Seema Tomar in the Women’s Trap finished 26th, shooting a score of 60 in an event where Chinese Taipei’s Yi Chun Lin won the gold. Zoravar Sandhu in the Men’s Trap lay in the 30th place with a score of 68. In the same event, Kyn Chei was in the 46th place with a score of 66. IANS