Pooja’s Bronze Opens India’s Medal Count In Shooting World Cup

Ace shooter Pooja Ghatkar claimed a bronze in the women's 10m air rifle event to open India's medal count at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range here on Friday.

This was the first World Cup medal for 27-year-old Pooja, who scored a total of 228.8 to finish third. Earlier in the day, she had shot 418, her best World Cup qualifying score till date, to finish second behind eventual gold medallist from China, World No.11 Mengyao Shi, who shot 418.6 to finish on top of the qualification charts.

In the eight woman 24-shot final, which had names like former Olympic bronze medallist Snjezana Pejcic of Croatia and reigning Asian Games Gold medallist Najmeh Khidmati among others, Pooja started confidently and remained among the top three throughout. At a point when it looked like the third Chinese shooter Mingyang Wu would catch up with her, a confident 10.8 in the 19th shot and a 10.7 in the 21st ensured India got on the medal table on the opening day of the competition itself. While Mengyao shot a final score of 252.1 to win gold, her compatriot Lijie Dong fired a 248.9 to clinch the silver medal. China also won the men's 10M Air Rifle gold, with Buhan Song causing an upset win over Hungary's Peter Sidi, the current World No.4 and a former World Champion and multiple World Cup Gold medallist.