Naraen Pranav wins air rifle bronze in Suhl World Cup

Suhl (Germany), May 24 (PTI) Teenager Naraen Pranav won bronze in the men's 10m air rifle event to give India their fifth medal in the ongoing ISSF Junior World Cup here on Saturday.

The Khelo India Youth Games champion shot 227.9 in the final to finish behind Braden Peiser (250.0) of the USA, who claimed silver. China's Huang Liwanlin (250.3) won the gold.

It was never going to be easy for Pranav as the final featured reigning 3P junior world champion Peiser, a rare southpaw in the sport, world championship silver medallist and junior Asian champion Huang, along with the likes of 3P gold medallist from Friday, Romain Aufrere.

To his credit, Pranav remained unfazed by the magnitude of the occasion and the quality of the field to deliver a confident and strong start to the 24-shot match-up, which eventually helped him bag the medal.

He was in the lead after the first five-shot series. After the second, during which he had to account for a reorganization of his stance, he was third behind Huang who had gone into the lead for the first time and local hope Florian Beer.

As the single shots began, Pranav momentarily went down to fourth, regained third spot after the 15th, but a 9.8 in his 17th saw him go down to fifth and in danger of elimination.

With Griffin Lake of the USA just 0.1 behind in sixth, Pranav, in what was turning out to be a high-quality final, shot a 10.4 as the American failed to register a shot in the allotted time.

Pranav needed the stroke of luck and he then fired a 10.7, and followed it up with a 10.5, to account for Beer by 0.1 and snatch the medal. After 22 shots, he finished 1.1 behind Peiser and 1.2 behind winner Huang, to bow out of the gold medal contest.

Earlier, Pranav had shot a sizzling 632.1 to top the 77-field qualifying round, giving an early impression of the kind of shooting form he was in. PTI AH AH PDS PDS