ISSF Shooting Junior World Cup: Rudhrankksh, Abhinav win gold medals in 10m Air Rifle event, India leads medals tally

Indian shooters Rudhrankksh Balasaheb Patil and Abhinav Shaw won gold and silver medals respectively in the junior men's 10m Air Rifle event at the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup.

The ISSF Junior World Cup is taking place in Suhl, Germany.

India's 1-2 finish was the perfect end to a grueling contest which saw Rudrankksh pip Abhinav 17-13 in the final. Germnay’s Nils Palberg won the bronze medal.

In the junior women’s 10M Air Rifle event, India's Ramita settled for a silver medal, losing 8-16 to France's Oceanne Muller. The French shooter is the reigning Junior World Champion and Tokyo Olympics finalist.

Ramita was on the money from the word go and topped the qualification charts on Tuesday with a score of 630.5. The Indian went on to lead the final stage eliminations too with a score of 261.0.

Rudrakksh, Abhinav dish out commendable shooting performance

The Indian duo shot consistently well throughout, first crossing the eight-man final stage elimination hurdle and then putting up a show in the gold-medal matchup.

Earlier on Tuesday, on day one of the ISSF Shooting World Cup, Rudrankksh also topped the qualification stage with 627.5 points, leading three Indians into the top-eight stage.

Paarth Makhija accompanied the duo, holding on to his fifth position in qualifying in the final classifications.

However, the Shooting World Cup belonged to Rudrankksh, who dominated all three stages of the competition over two days of shooting.

In the final, it was Abhinav who started the stronger in the early stages, going up 4-2 after the first three shots.

Rudrankksh recovered quickly though, and went past his countryman, keeping his nose ahead till the very end to seal victory.

India presently tops the medal tally at the World Cup with one gold medal and two silver medals.

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has shortlisted as many as 51 shooters for the German World Cup, scheduled to to be held from May 9-20. Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary are expected to headline their respective events in the coming days.

The national team was selected by the NRAI on the basis of top three rankings.