Anuradha Devi stunned all to take silver in the women’s 10m air pistol behind Rio Olympic champion Anna Korakakki of Greece at the ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun stage in Cairo, Egypt on Friday.
Shooting on competition day one, Devi took the eighth and final qualifying spot and then shot a dream final to finish second.
Devi’s feat gave India their first medal of the Olympic year’s first (of six) ISSF World Cup stages. Earlier, Sagar Dangi too had reached the final in the men’s 10m air pistol but could not capitalise fully, finishing sixth.
Paris quota holder Rhythm Sangwan had also reached the women’s final, qualifying first with a score of 584, but missed out with a fourth-place finish in the end.
Devi had shot 575 in qualification and just about qualified on higher inner 10s, but in the final she held her own and shot like a pro. She had a great second five-shot series in the 24-shot final to move up to second at the end of 10-shots, with Korakakki in a class of her own at the top.
In between, Sangwan moved ahead of her after the 15th, but Devi came back with a vengeance with seven straight scores of 10 or above to not only account for her countrywoman, but also bronze winning Kazakh Irina Yunusmetova, who was at one stage looking comfortable for silver.
Devi’s final score of 239.9 in the end was 1.2 behind Korakakki.
Among other Indian results, Manu Bhaker shot 572 in the women’s pistol to finish 15th while Ujjwal Malik (579) and Ravinder Singh (577) also finished outside the top eight.
In men’s trap, Zoravar Sandhu was the best placed Indian with a three-round score of 70 and a share of 15th spot, while in the women’s trap, Rajeshwari Kumari was lying 19th with a score of 64.
