Doha, Dec 7 (IANS) India’s Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar won a silver medal in the 50m rifle 3 positions, completing a full set of medals at all possible world and continental championships at the ISSF World Cup Final debut here on Sunday.

Jiri Privratsky of the Czech Republic, who shot 414.2 in the final contested in the new ISSF format of 40 shots, finished 0.9 points ahead of the Indian. Bronze went to Olympic champion Liu Yukun.

On the particular day, two competitors failed to advance past the qualification stage: Sift Kaur Samra in the women’s 3P and Manu Bhaker in the women’s 25m pistol. Manu finished ninth in her qualification round with a score of 581, while Sift finished tenth in her relay with a score of 584.

Aishwary, the current Asian champion, a previous junior world champion, and a double Olympian, also took home a silver medal at the World Championship last month.

Aishwary finished second in qualification with a score of 595, trailing only China’s Tian Jiaming, who set a world record with a score of 598.

Three Chinese made it through the top eight, which also included Hungarian star Istvan Peni and Norwegian athlete of the year Jon-Hermann Hegg.

After taking ten shots in the first kneeling position over two series of five shots each, Aishwary finished fourth with a score of 102.8. Aishwary gained momentum throughout the next ten strokes of the second prone position, rising to second place on the leaderboard with impressive series of 52.9 and 52, respectively.

Privratsky, who was 3.3 ahead of Aishwary on stage, was forging his own path. With 20 standing position shots remaining, Olympic champion Liu came in third. Over the following ten shots, Aishwary outgunned Privratsky, reducing the gap to 1.5. It dropped to 0.5 after the 31st because Privratsky was having trouble getting inside the 10-ring.

Romain Aufrere, a young Frenchman, lost the bronze match against the Olympic champion when Privratsky caught up to Aishwary and took a 0.5 lead once more after the 37th shot with two high 10s, while the Indian struggled a little.

Privratsky won gold, his third ISSF yellow metal of the year, when Aishwary fired a 10.1 to the Czech’s 10.3 and then a 10.6 for his 40th. The difference was only 0.3 ahead of the last two shots.

–IANS

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