India sweep women's 50m rifle prone, bag silver and bronze in men's event at Jr World Cup

New Delhi, Sep 25 (PTI) India's young shooters made a strong start to their ISSF Junior World Cup campaign, clinching all three medals in the women's 50m rifle prone event and adding a silver and bronze in the men's category here on Thursday.

Anushka Thokur underlined her class in the women's final, shooting series of 104.0, 103.6, 103.8, 102.2, 105.0, and 103.0 for a total of 621.6, to secure the gold medal.

Teammate Anshika followed with 619.2 (103.2, 103.4, 101.9, 101.6, 104.7, 104.4) to take silver, while Aadhya Agrawal completed the clean sweep for India with 615.9 (102.6, 102.8, 101.7, 104.8, 101.8, 102.2) for bronze.

In the men's event, Individual Neutral Athlete Kamil Nuriakhmetov claimed gold with 618.9 (103.3, 103.5, 103.3, 102.6, 103.0, 103.2).

India's Deependra Singh Shekhawat put up a strong fight to take silver with 617.9 (102.9, 101.7, 103.4, 102.2, 104.6, 103.1), while Rohit Kanyan added a bronze to the host nation's tally, scoring 616.3 (101.7, 102.6, 100.9, 102.6, 105.2, 103.3).

The action continues on Friday with the men's and women's 10m air pistol finals.

India's men's 10m air pistol campaign will be led by junior Asian champion Kapil Bainsla, Asian championship bronze medallist Jonathan Gavin Antony and Vijay Kumar Tomar, who together won the team silver at the 16th Asian Championship, in a field of 23 shooters from eight countries.

In the women's section, reigning Junior Asian champion Rashmika Sahgal will lead India's charge alongside Shymkent team gold medallists Vanshika Chaudhary and Mohini Singh in a lineup of 22 athletes from eight countries.

Skeet qualification for both men and women also gets underway with 75 targets on Qualification Day 1. PTI AH TAP