New Delhi, April 23 (IANS) Prachi Gaikwad struck gold, winning the junior women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) event at the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun in Cairo, Egypt, on Thursday, firing 354.6 in the final to overcome Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN) Darya Chuprys, who shot 354.4.

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 silvers and three bronzes 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.

Thereafter, she surged to second after the Prone round and was just 0.6 behind Darya, who was leading at that stage. With a 50+ return on the first five shots of the final Standing position, she shot into the lead for the first time in the match.

But Darya found a second wind and fired a 51.0 over the next five, as Prachi missed the 10-ring four times, going down to third momentarily with the last five shots remaining.

The minor setback did not deter the Indian as she delivered when it mattered most, hitting the 10-ring four times, including two high 10s, to clinch it from Darya by a margin of 0.2.

Naraen wins bronze

In the junior men’s 10m air rifle, three Indians made the cut, with Naraen best placed at third, scoring 630.9. Abhinav Shaw was fourth with 630.0 while Divyanshu Dewangan took the seventh qualifying spot with a score of 626.8.

In the final, Divyanshu was the first to be eliminated in eighth place with his score reading 122.4 after 12 shots of the 24-shot final. Abhinav and Naraen were in the fight for third place at that point with Uzbek Javohir Sokhibov and Cypriot Achilleas Sophocleous in first and second, respectively.

Naraen then fired a 10.7 followed by a perfect 10.9, to now challenge Sophocleous for silver as Abhinav faded away. Sokhibov seemed out of reach.

Abhinav had 0.6 to make up on Naraen going into the 20th, but a 9.9 put paid to his hopes, as Naraen clinched bronze, falling short of the Greek by 0.4 after the 22nd shot. Sokhibov romped to gold, finishing with 251.2, a whole point ahead of Sophocleous.

Vanshika Chaudhary, Sejal Kamble, and Kanak have also made the junior women’s 10m air pistol final, with scores of 579, 577, and 576, giving them the top three spots on the leaderboard.

The final is slated for 8.30 pm Indian Standard Time (IST) later on Thursday.

–IANS

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