Sainyam opened India’s account at the ISSF World Cup Junior in Suhl, Germany, finishing atop the podium in the women’s 10m air pistol competition on Saturday. The Chandigarh youngster shot 238 in the final with Korea’s Kim Minseo coming in second place.
The Korean shot 236.0 for silver while the bronze went to Chinese Taipei’s Liu Heng Yu, who bowed out after the 22nd shot of the 24-shot final, with a score of 216.9, 0.2 behind the Korean at that stage.
In other results, India’s Suruchi Inder Singh also reached the women’s pistol final, finishing sixth with a score of 154.1. Amit Sharma in the junior men’s 10m air pistol, was the lone Indian finalist in the event and finished fourth to miss out on a medal. Italian Luca Arrighi won gold in the event.
Among the other Indians in the fray, Urva Chaudhary finished 26th in women’s air pistol with a qualification round score of 560. Sainyam had qualified third with 571 while Suruchi was fifth in qualifying with 571 as well.
In men’s pistol, Abhinav Chaudhary came close to the top eights with a qualification round score of 570, placing him ninth. Shubham Bisla, the third Indian contender, placed 13th having shot a score of 568.
The junior men’s and women’s skeet qualification rounds also began on Saturday. Ritu Raj Bundela, Abhay Singh Sekhon and Munek Battula were in contention in men’s skeet while Raiza Dhillon, Mufaddal Zara Deesawala and Sanjan Sood featured in women’s skeet.
Competition Day 2 on Sunday has four finals on the roster including both the Mixed Team Rifle and Pistol finals and the women’s and men’s skeet finals. India have entered a 56-strong squad in the competition which has 511 athletes from 46 countries.
