Ex-jr world champ Hazarika and Haryana teen win first individual senior medals; finish second in men’s, women’s 10m air rifle events respectively
Hriday Hazarika (right) Haryana shooter Nancy. Pics/NRAI’s Twitter handle
Former junior world champion Hriday Hazarika and Haryana’s Nancy won their first individual senior World Cup medals, shooting down silver in the men’s and women’s 10m air rifle competitions here on Friday.
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The Assam marksman shot brilliantly in the final, where his lowest score of 10.1 came in the very first of the 24-shot contest. Nancy was even better, recording a lowest of 10.2 in her final. However, both went down to more accurate shooters on the day.
Hriday lost to Hungary’s Zalan Pekler who shot 252.4 to the Indian’s 251.9, while Nancy, after going into the final two shots with a 0.1 lead over China’s Han Jiayu, could not hold on to the cushion to finish with 253.3 to her opponents’ 254.0.
Battle for supremacy
Both the men’s and women’s finals were of very high quality, with China’s Sheng Lihao recording a score of 9.9 in his 21st shot, the only score in the nines by the six medallists across the two finals.
The latest results left China and India locked in a battle for supremacy with two more days to go. China led the medal tally with two gold, one silver and two bronze while India have one gold, two silver and one bronze.
On being asked whether he expected this performance at the start of the day, Hriday said, “Not really. I did not have any expectations as such. Just wanted to do my best and shoot according to the plan. I am happy that I was able to execute well today.”
The two other Indians in the fray, Rudrankksh Patil and Shahu Tushar Mane, shot scores of 628.8 and 628.1 to finish 19th and 23rd respectively.
Meanwhile, Nancy’s route to silver was slightly tougher as she did not have as solid a start as Hriday in the final although she also qualified seventh with a score of 631.6 in qualification.
‘Best performance’
Han Jiayu topped with 634.3 as two other Indians, Ramita (631.4) and Tilottama Sen (629.7), ended in ninth and 15th positions respectively despite shooting well. “It was certainly the best performance of my career,” said the Haryana teenager after the match.
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