Hriday Hazarika and Haryana’s Nancy came of age as they clinched silver medals in the men’s and women’s 10m air rifle respectively at the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup Rifle/Pistol in Baku, Azerbaijan.
It was their first-ever individual medal at a senior ISSF World Cup.
Despite finishing ninth in the qualifiers, Hazarika progressed to the final round as Olympian Divyansh Singh Panwar, placed third with 633.1, and Arjun Babuta, seventh with 630.6, competed for ranking points only (RPO).
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The Assam shooter upped his ante in the 24-shot round where his lowest score was 10.1. However, he had to be content with the second spot as Hungary’s Zalan Pekler shot 252.4 to the Indian’s 251.9.
What did Hriday Hazarika say about his performance?
When Hazarika was asked whether he expected to perform so well, he 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.”
Hazarika had previously won gold at the 2018 junior world championships at Changwon and two junior ISSF World Cup medals - gold in Suhl 2018 and bronze in Suhl 2019.
Meanwhile, Rudrankksh Patil and Shahu Tushar Mane, shot scores of 628.8 and 628.1 to finish 19th and 23rd respectively to crash out from the qualifiers.
Hriday Hazarika bags🥈& 3⃣rd 🏅for 🇮🇳 at #ISSFShootingWorldCup, Baku🔫
— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) May 12, 2023
The #TOPSchemeAthlete lost 🥇in the 10m Men's Air Rifle event after losing a close match to 🇭🇺's Zalam Pekler!
Congratulations Hriday 🥳 pic.twitter.com/zkrPVpGrKd
How did Nancy perform in the Women's 10m air rifle event?
Nancy made it to the finals after finishing eighth in the qualification with a score of 631.6. In the final round, she scored 253.3 which was just marginally short of Chinese shooter Jiayu Han's score of 254.
It was a thrilling battle between Nancy and Han until the last shot. In fact, she was 0.1 ahead of Han before the final two shots. However, Han shot 10.7 & and 10.6 to edge ahead of Nancy who could manage 10.3 & 10.2 respectively.
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“It was certainly the best performance of my career,” said the Haryana teenager after the match.
Previously, Nancy had won gold in the women’s rifle team event and another mixed-team bronze at the 2022 junior world championships in Cairo.
Other Indians, Ramita (631.4), Tilottama Sen (629.6), Elavenil Valarivan (628.2) Narmada Nithin (627.4) could not make it to the eight-women final.
How many medals have India won at the ISSF World Cup?
India’s tally at the ongoing ISSF World Cup rose to four courtesy of the wins of Hazarika and Nancy.
Earlier, Sarabjot Singh and Divya TS won gold in the 10m air pistol mixed team event on Thursday while Rhythm Sangwan bagged bronze in women’s 10m air pistol.
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