New Delhi, April 8 (IANS) Indian shooters missed out on a place in the final of the Men’s 10m Air Pistol event in the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol at the Las Gabias shooting range in Granada, Spain, on Wednesday. Mukesh Nelavalli, who won gold in the 10m mixed team event on Tuesday, finished highest among the Indians in 14th place.

In the 86-man qualification group, Mukesh shot 579-21x (94, 98, 98, 97, 95), two points below the final qualification place, which was secured by Anton Aristarkhov with a score of 581- 20x. China’s Xie Yu topped the qualification with a score of 588- 18x.

The best performance among the Indians, though, was by Aakash Bharadwaj, who shot 580-26x, to finish 10th in the standings, but he was only competing for ranking points. Among the other Indians in the fray, Ujjawal Malik finished in 22nd place with a score of 577-17x, and Parmod Kumar ended 39th with a score of 574-16x. Varun Tomar, who was also competing for ranking points, shot 569-13x to finish in 63rd place.

Rhythm, Divya start well in 25m Pistol Women

Rhythm Sangwan and Divya TS started well in the precision stage of the 25m Pistol Women event, with both shooters currently placed inside the top eight. Rhythm ended the day with a score of 292-9x after shooting 99,96,97 in the three-series round, while Divya shot 291-8x with scores of 96,98,97. The third shooter in the competition, Simranpreet Kaur Brar, had an off day with a score of 282-5x (93,94,95), the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) informed in a release on Wednesday.

Abhidnya Ashok Patel and Chinki Yadav, both competing for ranking points, finished the precision stage with scores of 286-8x and 277-7x, respectively.

The rapid stage and finals of the 25m Pistol women will be held tomorrow. The qualification and finals of the 10m Air Rifle Men and the elimination round of the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women will also be held on Thursday.

–IANS

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