Jr World Cup shooting: Anushka strikes second gold, Adriyan adds silver

New Delhi, Sep 28 (PTI) Budding shooter Anushka Thokur added a second gold to her bag, clinching the top spot in women's 50m rifle 3-positions event even as Adriyan Karmakar won a silver in the men's section of the same event in a depleted field in the ISSF Junior World Cup here on Sunday.

With these two medals, India have taken their tally to 13, including four gold, six silver and three bronze. Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN) are second with three gold, one silver and two bronze, while Italy are third with two gold and a silver.

Thokur, 18, who recently returned home from the Asian Championships in Shymkent, Kazakhstan with a gold in 50m rifle 3-positions, continued her dream run at her home range by winning her second Junior World Cup gold in four days.

She had taken the top spot in women's 50m rifle prone on the opening day of the competition at the Dr Karni Singh Ranges earlier this week.

The teenager shot 461.0 in the final, including a perfect 10.9 on her 35th shot in the standing position, to secure gold. The Indian had earlier qualified for the medal round with a score of 585.

She finished 6.1 points clear of Individual Neutral Athlete Anastasiia Sorokina, who settled for silver with 454.9 (580 in qualification). Sorokina's teammate Mariia Kruglova took the bronze with 444.0, edging out Anastasiia Gorokhova (AIN), who finished fourth on 434.3.

Among the other finalists in the event, India's Mahit Sandhu finished fifth with 422.7, followed by Croatia's Anamarija Turk (408.9).

India's Prachi Gaikwad ended up seventh with 399.3, while Slovakia's Kamila Novotna was eighth with 399.2 in a field that had only 12 athletes of which five were Indians, which has taken much of the sheen away from the achievements of the Indian athletes.

In a depleted junior men's 3P event, which too had just 12 competitors in the fray including five Indians, home country shooter Adriyan bagged the silver with 454.8 in the final. He had topped the qualification round with a score of 587.

Individual Neutral Athlete Dmitrii Pimenov, silver medallist at the ISSF World Cup in Ningbo recently, took the gold with 459.9 after shooting 586 in the preliminary round. Another Individual Neutral Athlete, Kamil Nuriakhmetov, claimed bronze with 441.0.

In the 25m rapid fire pistol junior (Stage 1 qualification), which has an extremely depleted field of just eight shooters of which five are Indians, the host country's Suraj Sharma shared the lead with Individual Neutral Athlete Aleksandr Kovalev, both scoring 287.

India's Sameer Gulia (286), Abhinav Choudhary (284), Mukesh Nelavalli (283), and Jatin (282) followed in third to sixth positions. Only three athletes per country can qualify for the final after Stage 2, ensuring a tight contest ahead.

The previous ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany in May this year had strong fields in virtually every competition with 10-12 times more athletes in almost every event compared to the ongoing edition in india. PTI AM AM AH AH