New Delhi: Jaipur girl Apurvi Chandela, on Saturday did the country proud by winning a Silver medal in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle event, at the ISSF World Cup Final (Rifle/Pistol) being held in Munich, Germany. This is a special medal for Apurvi as only shooters with the top nine scores over the four World Cups held earlier in the year, qualified for the Munich World Cup Final. In April this year, Apurvi had secured a Rio Olympics quota place for India after winning the Bronze medal in the same event in the ISSF World Cup in Changwon, Korea. Apurvi is also the reigning Commonwealth Games champion in the event.
Apruvi qualified for the final in fourth position with a score of 416.4. In the finals she shot a total of 206.9 to clinch the Silver. Elaheh Ahmadi of Iran won the Gold with a score of 207.5 while Andrea Arsovic of Serbia won the Bronze medal in a shoot-off.
Clearly pleased at the news, Mr. Raninder Singh, President of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), the national body governing the sport in the country said, “We are very excited in the way Apurvi has developed as a shooter over the past years. She has been raising the bar with every outing. This performance today has confirmed her status as one of the top women Rifle shooters of the world in her discipline. I am sure this medal will spur her for more consistency and greater glory and will act as a confidence booster as she prepares herself for the Rio 2016 Olympics.”
Expressing his happiness at the result, Mr. Kuldeep Chandela, father of Apurvi Chandela, said, “The family is delighted at this result, especially because it was a premiere competition between the year’s top shooters in the event. We are indebted to the coach Lapidius, who has always shown great confidence in Apurvi’s abilities throughout and worked very hard with her. We would also like to thank the NRAI for supporting her all through and taking care of all administrative matters, so that Apurvi could concentrate solely on her sport. Her record suggests that she is the best finalist among all Indian shooters as every time she makes the final rounds, she comes back with a medal of some colour. This medal will surely boost her confidence even more towards the aim of winning an Olympic medal, hopefully Gold.”
Four Indian shooters namely Gagan Narang (Men’s 50m Rifle Prone), Gurpreet Singh (Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol) and Jitu Rai (Men’s 10m Air Pistol) apart from Apurvi had made the grade for the Munich World Cup Finals for Rifle and Pistol. The highlight apart from Apurvi’s stunning performance was that all four Indians made the final rounds of their respective events.
