Changwon (South Korea): India began their ISSF World Championship campaign with three medals as Arjun Singh Cheema clinched gold while Gaurav Rana finished third in the individual junior men’s 50m pistol event here Sunday. Arjun then led his team comprising Gaurav and Anmol Jain to the team gold.
However, the shooters representing the senior teams fared poorly as they failed to reach the finals of their respective events.
The tournament assumes significance as it is the first quota event for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, offering as many as 60 berths.
Arjun shot a score of 559 in the individual event to get the better of Korean Woojong Kim, who managed 554 for the silver. Gaurav tallied 551 to claim bronze.
In the team event, Arjun, Gaurav and Anmol totaled 1659 to clinch the yellow metal ahead of Korea who came second with 1640. China won bronze in the team event.
However, it was a bad day for the senior shooters as the pair of Apurvi Chandela and Ravi Kumar shot 835.6 in qualifications to finish seventh in the mixed team 10m air rifle event.
The second Indian team in the event, comprising Deepak Kumar and Mehuli Ghosh, shot a combined score of 831.6 to end in 25th spot.
In the mixed team air pistol event, India’s Heena Sidhu and Shahzar Rizvi shot 768 to end 10th in qualification. The second Indian pair of Manu Bhaker and Abhishek Verma shot 767 to finish in 12th position.
