The shot of 8.5 cost Anjum Moudgill a medal in the 50m Rifle 3 Position event at the ISSF World Cup.
It was Anjum Moudgill’s second shot in the second elimination series of the standing position and with a score of 8.5, the Chandigarh shooter, placed third before the start of the series, slipped to seventh spot in the final of the women’s 50m Rifle 3 Position event at the ISSF World Cup in Munich.
Moudgill, who had shot just one shot of more than 10 in the six prior to that, then shot three scores of more than 10 to go into the single shot elimination in fourth spot. But her first shot of 9.2 meant that the 24-year-old bowed out of the competition.
Before the standing series in the final, Moudgill, who shot a score of 1177 in the qualification round, had ended the kneeling and prone series in second spot. The field included Rio Olympics silver medallist Binbin Zhang (bronze) and three-time World Cup medallist Chen Dongqi (silver), both from China.
Six of the eight shooters who qualified for the final had their lowest scoring series as the standing series and Anjum’s score of 386 in qualification meant she qualified in sixth spot.
On Saturday, when Moudgill had shot a world record qualifying score of 1180 in the elimination relay, her score of 390 was her lowest in the standing series. Sunday’s gold medallist Elaheh Ahmadi of Iran shot the best score of 396 in the standing series in qualification but had the lowest score of 387 in the kneeling position series.
India’s chief rifle coach Deepali Deshpande believes Sunday’s final would prepare Moudgill ahead of the Asian Games and the world cups offering quota places for the Tokyo Olympics.
“Anjum is the juniormost in this event for India and would take a lot of confidence. Six of the eight finalists here will also compete at the Asian Games and shooting in such pressure situations will prepare Anjum well,” shared Deshpande.
Anish, Gurpreet disappoint
In the men’s Rapid Fire Pistol event, teenage sensation Anish Bhanwala and Olympian Gurpreet Singh shot identical scores of 571 out of 600 in qualifying to fall well short of the top six.
The third Indian in the fray, Neeraj Kumar, shot an even lower score of 549. India, who are yet to win a medal in this World Cup, will have a last chance to make amends on Monday, the concluding day of the event. India will fancy their chances in the two events of the day, 10m Air Rifle Mixed team and the 10m Air Pistol Mixed team.