Changwon (South Korea): Saurabh Chaudhary claimed a record-shattering gold in the junior 10m air pistol event but Abhishek Verma missed out on an Olympic quota after finishing eighth in the senior competition of the ISSF World Championships here Thursday.
While they failed to impress individually, the senior shooters, including Verma, won silver in the 10m air pistol event. Asian Games bronze medallist Verma had shot 583 points in qualification.
Arjun Singh Cheema settled for a bronze in Chaudhary’s event and the Indian team took the silver, propelled by the 16-year-old Asian Games gold medallist’s phenomenal individual performance.
India also picked up a silver medal in the junior men’s trap team competition with Aman Ali Elahi, Vivaan Kapoor and Manavaditya Singh Rathore shooting a combined score of 348 points to finish second behind Australia.
In the senior segment, Verma, Om Prakash Mitharwal, and Shahzar Rizvi pocketed the team silver with a combined score of 1,738 points.
The 16-year-old Chaudhary, who won the Asiad gold last month, qualified third with a score of 581 points before shooting down his own world record (WR) with a score of 245.5 in the final. Singh managed 218 once the field was pruned to eight following the qualifying round.
Chaudhary first set a world record in the 10m air pistol event at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup in June.
The team of Chaudhary, Singh and Anmol, who could not make the individual final, claimed silver with a combined score of 1,730 points. Korea (1,732) bagged gold while Russia (1,711) went home with the bronze.
In the senior women’s trap event, CWG gold medallist Shreyasi Singh managed 110 out of 125 to finish 34th, followed by Seema Tomar (108, 41st) and Varsha Verman (107, 42nd). The team signed off eighth with a combined score of 325.
India ended day five with an overall total of 14 medals which includes four gold, six silver and four bronze medals. They lie third in the medals tally behind Korea and Russia.
So far, Anjum Moudgil and Apurvi Chandela are the only Indian shooters to secure quota places for the Olympics by winning a silver and finishing fourth respectively in the women’s 10m air rifle event.
