Harpal Singh Bedi / New Delhi
It was the turn of 16 year old Vijayveer Sidhu to close the Indian campaign by winning individual and team gold in the Junior 25m standard pistol while Gurpreet Singh clinched a silver in the senior section on the concluding day of the World Shooting Championships in Changwon (Korea) on Friday
India finished third in the championship with a tally of 27 medals,– 11 Gold, nine Silver and seven Bronze medals-behind powerhouse China and hosts Korea making it as their best ever performances in this prestigious event.
The country also bagged two Tokyo 2020 Olympic quotas from Changwon, through Anjum Moudgil and Apurvi Chandela in the Women’s 10M Air Rifle
Vijayveer Sidhu, who finished fourth in the 25m pistol Thursday which was won by his twin brother Udayveer, shot f 572 to finish ahead of Korea’s Lee Gunheyok (570) and China’s Haojie Zhu (565) for a gold in 25m standard pistol..
Rajkanwar came in fourth with 564 while Adarsh finished with 559 to claim 10thplace. However the trio’s combined efforts were enough to give them the team Gold, as their tally of 1695 was two clear of Team Korea (1693). Czech Republic (1674) settled for the bronze medal.
In the senior section Gurpreet Singh signed off with his silver in the 25m standard pistol. The former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist fired a score of 579 to finish second behind Ukraine’s Pavlo Korostylov, who shot a score of 581.
The bronze medal went to Koreas Kim Junhong, who shot the same score as the Indian but had lesser inner-10s to his credit.
In the team event the trio of Gurpreet, Amanpreet Singh (560) and London Olympics silver-medallist Vijay Kumar (560) combined for a score of 1699 to be placed fourth.
The junior women’s skeet ,Simranpreet Kaur (107), Parinaaz Dhaliwal (106) and Areeba Khan(105) to finish 17th,18th, and 20th respectively.
None of them managed to qualify for the individual finals. With a combined total of 318, the finished fourth in team event.
In 300m rifle 3p Parul Kumar shot 1134, Amit Kumar 1124 and Akash Ravidas 1077 to finish 24th,28th,and 35th respectively. In the team event they came 8th with 3335 points.