Shahzar Rizvi bagged India’s first medal at the ISSF World Cup in Changwon, Korea, when he clinched the 10m Air Pistol silver medal in a tight contest that went down to the wire.
Rizvi, who had won the gold medal in his first appearance in the ISSF World in Guadalajara in Mexico in March, came up with another confident performance but in the end fell short by just 0.2 points to bag the silver medal. Russia’s Artem Chernousov clinched the gold medal with a final score of 240. The bronze went to Bulgaria’s Samuil Donkov with a total score of 217.1.
With Indian shooters finishing fourth on two occasions in the first two days, all eyes were on Rizvi and Commonwealth Games medallists Jitu Rai and Om Prakash Mitharval to end India’s medal drought.
Rizvi qualified for the final as the sixth best shooter with a score of 582 while Mitharval finished 11th with a score of 581. Rai, however, disappointed and could just manage a score of 575 to finish 38th.
In the final, Rizvi began well and was top of the standings after the first series of five shots. Though he hit with a couple of low scores in the second series, the 23-year-old ensured that he never slipped below the third spot.
However, three successive scores of 9.1, 9.8 and 9.2 allowed China’s Qifeng Pu to close in within 0.5 points with just two shots left for the fourth place elimination. But he responded with two consecutive 10.6s to jump to second spot and then closed the gap for the top spot with a perfect 10.9 while Chernousov managing a 9.4.
Rizvi kept the pressure on the Russian, who was till then holding a sizable lead, but both could only manage a 10.0 on the final shot and thus ended India’s hope of a gold medal.
Olympic champion Xuan Vinh Hoang of Vietnam also shot 575 to bow out in 37th place.
UPDATE:
In the Men’s Trap, India’s Manavjit Singh Sandhu shot 117 out of 125 in qualification to be the best Indian finisher in 24th spot, while Kynan Chenai shot 115 to end in 36th place.
Zoravar Singh Sandhu was further back in 41st on a score of 114.
With Rizvi’s silver, India got onto the board at the Changwon International Shooting Centre with eight more finals left to play over the next five competition days.