India’s top rifle shooters Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar and Sift Kaur Samra failed to make an impact, while the less popular S. Rameshbhai Moradia won a silver medal in the men’s 10m air rifle at the World University Shooting Championships here on Monday.
Rameshbhai was the only Indian to win a medal on Monday. Olympian Tomar finished fifth in the event, while Paris Games participant Samra finished fourth in the women’s 50m rifle three-position event. Rameshbhai of Gujarat missed winning the gold medal by a very narrow margin.
He scored 252.1 points in the final, finishing just 0.1 points behind Jiri Privatsky of the Czech Republic. This is Privatsky’s second gold medal in this competition. He had won the gold medal in men’s 50 meter rifle three-position on Sunday. Aishwarya finished fifth with 187.7 points, while another Indian Umamahesh Maddineni (208.8) finished fourth.
Earlier in the qualification round, Rameshbhai had stood second with a score of 630.0. Uma Mahesh and Aishwarya scored 629.8 and 628.3 to enter the final of the eight shooters with third and fifth positions respectively. Samra missing out on a medal was a big disappointment for India. She is among the best shooters of the country in 50 meter rifle.
She stood fourth with 439.6 points. France’s Agathe Girard (462.3) won the gold medal of the event, while Poland’s Julia Piotrowska (462.0) and Anna Janssen (450.2) won the silver and bronze medals respectively. Samra was earlier ranked seventh in the qualification with a score of 587. India has so far won nine medals including one gold in this competition.
220 shooters from 23 countries are participating in this championship being hosted by ‘Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies’.
