New Delhi, Apr 24 (IANS) India’s 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team pairing of Shambhavi Kshirsagar and Divyanshu Dewangan won the competition with a junior world record score of 499.9, as India claimed a fourth gold in the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun, in Cairo, Egypt, on Friday.

The pair had earlier topped the qualification round with a combined 632.0. Chinese Taipei’s Tsai Chieh-Ying and Chen You-An won silver with 498.3, while the French pairing of Tifenn Pomes and Gaspard Lesieur won bronze with 434.4.

In the junior men’s 25m Rapid-Fire Pistol event, Sameer made the cut to the final with an effort of 573 in qualifying, which gave him the second spot. France’s Arnaud Gamaleri posted a table-topping 589, which equalled the junior world record. Sameer finished seventh eventually, scoring seven hits in the first three five-shot series of the eight-series final. Gamaleri took gold with 29 hits.

India now has 12 medals from the Cairo Junior World Cup and leads the medal tally with four gold, five silver, and three bronze, with two days of the competition left and six gold medals still to be decided.

Earlier on Thursday, Prachi Gaikwad struck gold, winning the junior women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) event.

Another AIN shooter, Elena Kretinina, won bronze with a score of 343.3, exiting the 35-shot final after the 34th shot. Naraen Pranav also won bronze in the junior men’s 10m air rifle with a score of 229.5 in the final.

This was India’s second gold of the competition after Shiva Narwal had won the men’s 10m Air Pistol event on the opening day of competitions on Tuesday (April 21), and with four silver and three bronze medals also in their kitty, takes them back to the top of the medal tally.

Prachi was the only Indian to qualify for the Junior Women’s 3P final at the Olympic International City Shooting range. She took sixth spot with a score of 578 and then began the final, placing fifth after the first 10 shots in the Kneeling position.

–IANS

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