India adds two silver through Aishwary, Esha and Rana

Cairo, Nov 11 (PTI) Olympian Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar equalled the qualification world record and then won his first-ever individual World Championship medal by settling for silver in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions final here on Tuesday.

Newly-crowned air pistol world champion Samrat Rana and defending champion Esha Singh also ended with a silver medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team competition, after they went down 10-16 in the gold medal match to China's Kai Hu and Qianxun Yao.

Before that Aishwary, the two-time Olympian, managed 466.9 in the 45-shot final to finish behind China's reigning Olympic champion Liu Yukun, who ended 0.2 ahead with 467.1.

India continued to hold the second position in the medal tally behind China with three gold, five silver and three bronze in their kitty. China have so far won eight gold in a total of 14 podium finishes.

Aishwary, the reigning Asian champion, shot like a dream throughout the day, scoring an astonishing 200/200 in the kneeling position of the qualification round and followed that up with yet another perfect 200 in the second prone position.

He lost just three points in the standing position to end up with a tally of 597 and top the 66-strong field. It also matched the men's 3P qualification world record score, hitherto jointly held by Liu and his fellow Chinese Linshu Du.

Niraj Kumar, the second Indian in the field, qualified fifth with a score of 592.

In the eight-man final, Aishwary had a poor start by his standards on the day, an 8.6 for his sixth kneeling shot setting him back early. The recovery began in his favourite prone position and a defining series of 53.3, 52.7 and 52.7 lifted him to second, just 0.2 behind leader Liu.

Teammate Niraj's fortunes went the other way as after being fourth at the end of the kneeling position, he slipped to sixth going into the final standing position and although he managed to cover some ground, he could only manage a fifth-place finish in his first ever worlds final.

When the eliminations began, the difference between Liu and Tomar was 0.2. The lead alternated between the Indian and the Chinese shooters going into the final shot.

As Liu fired a 10.1, Tomar needed a 10.2 or more to win gold, but a 9.8 meant the Chinese Olympic champion was also crowned the new world champion. Talented Frenchman Romain Aufrere won bronze.

Esha, Samrat outgunned by top Chinese pair ============================ In the second final of the day -- the 10m air pistol mixed team -- the Indian pair of Esha and Samrat did exceedingly well to top qualifications with a combined effort of 586, with both shooting identical scores of 293.

The second Indian duo of Suruchi Singh and Shravan Kumar shot 579 to end in eighth position.

Esha and Samrat were up against it as they faced Kai Hu and Qianxun Yao of China in the gold medal match, the world number one and two individually and in-form, having won silver and gold respectively in the individual event on Monday.

The race to 16 points lasted for 13 rounds and both pairs were tied at nine points apiece after nine rounds. The Chinese then took the next three rounds and despite India tying the 13th, the match could not be salvaged. PTI AH AH UNG