The 12-member Indian Rifle squad opened their account at the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun in Baku, Azerbaijan, with a gold in the 10m Air Rifle Team Women competition, early on Tuesday. The trio of Elavenil Valarivan, Ramita and Shreya Agrawal outplayed Denmark 17-5 in the gold medal encounter.
They had reached the gold medal clash after two rounds of qualification on Monday. Denmark, represented by Anna Nielsen, Emma Koch and RikkeMaeng Ibsen had beaten the Indian team in the last eight stage but the Indians stepped up when it mattered most. Poland won bronze in the event.
The Indian Men’s Air Rifle team fell short however in their bronze medal match against Croatia, going down 10-16. Here too the tables were turned as Rudrankksh Patil, PaarthMakhija and Dhanush Srikanth had beaten the Croats in the last eight-stage.
India now finds themselves fifth on the medal tally with Serbia leading the field with two golds and a total of four medals.
(By Pratyusha Mukherjee, in her illustrated career she has covered many major events and achieved International and Indian Media Awards for Journalism. You may reach her- pratyusha.mukherjee@gmail.com.)
