New Delhi: Young Akhil Sheoran clinched the gold medal in the men’s 50m rifle 3 position as India continued their superlative run at the ISSF World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Sheoran thus became the fourth young Indian shooter to win a medal on ISSF World Cup debut.
This was after the likes of Shahzar Rizvi, Manu Bhaker, Mehuli Ghosh and Anjum Moudgil had put India on top of the medal standings with their performances over the last week.
Sheoran’s gold was India’s fourth of the competition and makes it almost certain that the country would finish on top of the medals tally for the first time in an ISSF World Cup.
Sheoran shot 455.6 in the final ahead of Austria’s Bernhard Pickl, who finished second with 452.
In a strong field that included 38-time ISSF medallist and Hungarian rifle legend Peter Sidi, Rio Olympic bronze medallist Alexis Reynauld of France and air rifle gold medallist Istvan Peni, also of Hungary besides India’s champion 3 position exponent Sanjeev Rajput, Sheoran’s performance in tough conditions belied his age and experience.
Earlier in the qualification round where each shooter has 40 shots in each position, the experienced Rajput shot a solid 1176 out of a possible 1200 to qualify second behind Peni (1178).
Sheoran was fourth with 1174 while young Swapnil Kusale, competing in his first World Cup, shot 1168 for seventh place to ensure all three Indians made the eight-man final.
Rajput had the best prone round among all qualifiers with a 398 out of 400 while both he and Sheoran had the strongest kneeling round among the eight with scores of 392 each.
Swapnil had the strongest standing round among the three Indians with a 390 score which was the second best in the position among all qualifiers.
In the final, Rajput was strongest off the blocks and was placed second after the first 10 kneeling shots with Sheoran in third and Swapnil in joint fourth place.
At the end of it, Rajput was 0.6 clear of Pickl. Sheoran was in fourth and Swapnil in fifth place with Istvan Peni looming in third.
