Neeraj Kumar impressed on an otherwise off day for Indian shooters on the second day of the ISSF World Cup in Munich on Saturday.
Neeraj shot 291 in the precision round to finish 11th and within reach of a second successive World Cup final in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol. If he shoots well in the rapid fire round on Sunday, which precedes the event final, he will make the final, reported PTI. In the same event, Neeraj’s teammates Gurpreet Singh shot 289 to be placed 20th, while Harpreet managed 286 to finish 33rd.
In the men’s 50m pistol event, multiple medallist Jitu Rai shot 551 to finish 32nd in the qualification, a below-par performance for him. Among the other Indians in the event, Prakash Nanjappa shot 549 to finish 39th while Amanpreet Singh ended in 60th position with 537.
Meanwhile, Korean legend Jongoh Jin shot his 16th World Cup gold by winning the men’s 50m pistol event ahead of Portugal’s Joao Costa and Serbia’s Dimitrije Grgic. The four-time Olympic champion shot 230.5 in the final to better Jitu’s effort of 230.1 in the year’s first World Cup stage in New Delhi.
India’s challenge in the women’s 25m pistol ended in the qualifying rounds when the trio of Muskan, Rahi Sarnobat and Surabhi Pathak finished with identical score of scores of 572 to be placed 41st, 43rd and 46th respectively.