Stunning 1-2 finish for India after Shambhavi, Ojasvi's keen tussle

Suhl (Germany), May 24 (PTI) India recorded a stunning 1-2 finish in the women's 10m air rifle final after two 16-year-old shooters -- Shambhavi Kshirsagar and Ojasvi Thakur -- were engaged in a keen tussle in the ISSF Junior World Cup here on Saturday.

Their efforts helped India regain the top spot in the standings with two gold, three silver and three bronze medals.

Shambhavi scored 253.0 in the 24-shot final for gold while Ojasvi was 1.2 behind in second place. Early leader Carlota Salafia of Italy was third with 230.5, bowing out after 22 shots.

It was a fruitful day for India as Naraen Pranav won bronze in the men's 10m air rifle and Mukesh Nelavalli followed it up with a third-place finish in the men's 25m rapid-fire pistol.

In the morning, the two Indians topped the 60-shot qualification round with super-hot scores. Shambhavi shot 633.1 in the first relay as Ojasvi trumped her with a 633.2 to top the field.

With a finals field comprising world number one and double Paris medallist Huang Yuting of China besides Olympian Manon Herbulot of France, it was going to be a tough final.

The two Indians, however, shot like a dream, consistently firing high 10s.

The duo were joint second after the first five-shot series, first and third respectively after the second and by the 12th single shot were 1-2 but with the field still closely huddled.

While Shambhavi never let go of her lead, Ojasvi did go down to fourth momentarily after the 16th shot but a perfect 10.9 in her 17th took her back to third.

Shambhavi herself was in tremendous form, firing a 10.9 in her 16th and by the end of the 18th, the two Indians were firmly back in gold and silver positions.

To her credit, Carlotta did pose a late challenge to Ojasvi but it was duly buried as the Indians closed out with five high 10s in their last eight shots collectively. The lowest they had shot over 48 attempts was a 10.0, never going into the 9s even once.

Mukesh shoots a good bronze ==================== The gold in the men's 25m rapid-fire pistol went to Thomas Chinours of France after he overcame Lukasz Kopiwoda of Poland in the second shoot-off round. Both had tied for 26 hits after the eight series of five rapid-fire shots.

The bronze was picked up by India's Mukesh Nelavalli who shot 22, bowing out after the seventh series.

After starting at 13th on the grid following a sedate precision round on Friday, Mukesh shot a 289 in the second rapid-fire round on Saturday morning to log 573 as his final total. He then had to wait till the last group to finish to confirm his place among the top six.

Despite four athletes ending on the same score of 573, Mukesh scraped through to clinch the sixth and final spot, on higher count of hits in the inner 10 ring.

The final proved to be even more pulsating. At the outset, the complex electronic scoring system malfunctioned and it was difficult in the initial stages to gauge the exact score of the six athletes.

As things settled from the third series, it turned out that Mukesh had been among the slow starters with one of the two Hungarians Mate Redecsi leading in the early stages before Chinours and Kopiwoda caught up with him.

A perfect five in the fourth series redeemed Mukesh and he followed it up with a four-hits series as the Kiril Tsukanov became the first to be eliminated with the Akos Karoly Nagy following suit.

Another five in the sixth series tied him at 19 hits with Mate and the duo went to the match's first shoot-off. One round would not be enough as both shot three greens, but the Indian shot three again in the second shoot-off round as the Hungarian succumbed with two hits to his name.

India's sixth medal and second of the day was assured. PTI AH AH PDS PDS