New Delhi: Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu combined to give India their first gold medal of the ISSF World Cup Final here, clinching the top honours in the 10m air pistol mixed team event on the opening day of competitions.
It was historic as the mixed team events have been officially granted medal status at an ISSF World Cup Final.
In the 10m mixed air rifle event, the duo of Deepak Kumar and Meghana Sajjanar had to be contend with a fourth-place finish at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Ranges. The Indian pair, who suffered a two-shot penalty for shooting in the wrong sequence, would have probably landed a medal otherwise.
The duo of Jitu and Heena shot 483.4 in the final to finish on the top of the podium. Despite starting off with a 2.5-point disadvantage from the lead after the first series of five shots, Sidhu and Rai gradually closed the gap on their opponents to give the host nation a positive start in the prestigious tournament that is being organised for the first time in the country.
France’s Florian Fouquet and Celine Goberville bagged the silver medal with a score 481.1. The bronze medal was awarded to Yang Wei and Cai Xiaoxue (418.2) of China.
This was the Indian pair’s third gold in the event this year, having won both the test events (Grand Prix status) at two earlier World Cup stages here Delhi and in Gabala. This was also Heena’s second WCF gold medal. She had won the individual women’s 10m air pistol gold in 2013.
In the final, where each team shoots 30 shots before the start of elimination rounds Heena and Jitu started slowly. However, a magnificent couple of 10.9s by Jitu on his 15th and 17th individual shot, meant that they held on to win the gold easily. A 10.8 in his 21st individual shot was also crucial and Heena was a picture of consistency throughout the final.
“It feels great to win here in front of our people. There were high expectations from us and that’s why we trained a lot together in the last few days,” Heena said.
“We like this format, it’s a bit longer than the other ones but we definitely like it,” added Rai, who previously won two medals during the ISSF World Cup Stage 1 that took place here in February and March.
In the mixed team trap event, Spain’s Antonio Bailon and Beatrice Martinez won gold by shooting 42 out of 50 in the final round. They beat Italy’s Giovanni Pellielo and Jessica Rossi (40) to silver while the USA’s Derrek Haldeman and Ashley Carroll won bronze with a score of 31.
Press Trust of India