Pooja Ghatkar takes bronze, Deepak finishes fifth at shooting world cup

New Delhi: Pooja Ghatkar overcame technical issues to settle for the 10m air rifle bronze as hosts India opened their account on a positive note in the International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup at the Karni Singh Shooting Range here on Friday.

Deepak Kumar impressed finishing fifth in the men’s 10m air rifle final with a score of 185.4, while Ravi Kumar was eighth with 122.0 after having made the cut for the eight-man final. They were fourth and sixth in the qualification.
In the women’s trap event, Rajeshwari Kumari (17th), Seema Tomar (22nd) and Manisha Kheer (29th) failed to clear the qualification hurdle.

From India’s perspective, the day belonged to the 27-year-old Ghatkar, who, despite a “torn” blinder, displayed exemplary composure to secure a podium finish. It was the 27-year old Pooja’s first ever World Cup medal.

Earlier in the day, she had shot 418, her best World Cup qualifying score till date, to finish second behind eventual gold medallist world no. 11 China’s Shi Mengyao, who shot 418.6 to finish on top of the qualification charts.

China also won the men’s 10m air rifle gold, with Song Buhan causing an upset win over Hungary’s Peter Sidi. Song shot 249.5 to Sidi’s 249.1 in the final. Japan’s Atsushi Simada took the bronze.

Deepak and Ravi Kumar also made the final but could only finish fifth and eighth respectively. Deepak was fourth in qualifying with a good score of 625.8 and Ravi shot 624.