India’s young shooting brigade bagged their second gold medal of the day after Hriday Hazarika claimed the top spot in men’s 10m air rifle at the SSF Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany on Monday. Earlier in the day, Elavenil Valarivan had won the gold in women’s 10m air rifle.
Hazarika shot a score of 248.7 in the final to finish just 0.3 points ahead of silver medallist Maximilian Ulbrich from Germany and China’s Gangfeng Fu, who won bronze with 226.9. The other Indian in the final, Divyansh Singh Panwar, was the second to be eliminated with a total score of 141.8.
In the final, the Indian teen maintained a consistent show with only three scores of under 10, one of which came on the last shot. But despite that 9.9, he had just enough to pip the German close on his heels.
Hazarika had led the pack right from the qualification, topping the chart with a score of 627.1. Panwar had qualified on seventh place with 625.9. There were two other Indians in the fray, Shahu Tushar Mane (622.3) and Sunmoon Singh Brar (607.8).
This is India’s eighth medal from the competition, making it four gold, one silver and three bronze medals.