India clinched whopping 16 medals including 4 gold in Commonwealth Shooting Championships

Canberra, November 6: Indian shooters continued to keep up their good run in the international sports arena as the contingent bagged 16 medals including four gold at the ongoing Commonwealth Shooting Championships in Gold Coast, Australia.

 

Notably, on Sunday i.e on the sixth day, India's Anish Bhanwala won a silver medal in the men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol event, while Neeraj Kumar bagged a bronze. These two medals took India's tally from rifle and pistol events to 16, including four gold.

India has won one gold and a silver medal in shotgun events. India had three representatives in the six-man rapid fire pistol final, with Olympian Gurpreet Singh qualifying along with Anish and Neeraj. Anish topped the qualification with a score of 577, while Neeraj was second with 575. Gurpreet qualified in fifth place with a score of 566.

Unfortunately, Gurpreet was first to be outclassed in the final, but Anish and Neeraj gave a comprehensive performance and hung on for the silver and bronze after Australian Sergei Evglevski made the gold medal beyond reach, pulling away from the field after the fourth five-shot series.

Neeraj won a fourth-place elimination shoot-off over England's Sam Gowin to assure himself of a medal. He had to be content with bronze as Anish beat him 21-19 after the sixth series. Sergei ended with a score of 28 out of 40 to win gold, while Anish was two behind with 26.

On the other side, in the women's rifle 3 positions, Scotland's Seonaid Mcintosh won gold with a final round score of 459.9. England's Katie Gleeson bagged silver and Singapore's Martina Veloso won bronze. Gaayathri finished fourth, shooting 429.7, and was the best placed among the three Indian finalists.

Aditi Singh finished sixth while Tejaswini Sawant, the third Indian in the eight-woman final, finished seventh. In the women's trap, India's Shreyasi Singh made it to her second final of the championships but missed out on her second medal by finishing sixth.

She shot 11 in the final, after winning a shoot-off with compatriot Seema Tomar during qualification. Australia's Laetisha Scanlan won gold in the event, while Sharon Niven of Scotland won silver. Rio Olympic silver medalist Natalie Rooney of New Zealand bagged the bronze.