New Delhi: Sanjeev Rajput finished fifth in the men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions event on a disappointing day for Indians at the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup here on Sunday.
Rajput faltered a bit in early stages of the qualifying round before rallying brilliantly towards the end to shoot a score of 1159 and qualify for the final in the eighth position.
In the eight man final, Sanjeev was in medal contention after 15 shots each in the kneeling and prone positions. But a below par standing position round, which saw him register many scores in the 8s and none in the higher 10s when it mattered, meant he had to be content with fifth place.
Chain Singh finished ninth with a score of 1156 while Satyendra Singh, the third Indian in the fray, shot 1154 to finish 13th.
Earlier in the day, Indian fans tasted disappointment in the women's 10m Air Pistol event as former World No.1 Heena Sidhu missed out on a final berth by 0.1 points to finish 11th.
Harveen Rao however sprung a surprise by scoring 379 in the qualifying round to make it to the eight-woman final in the seventh position.
She endured a torrid start to the final, shooting three scores out of the first five shots in the 8s which put her out of a medal reckoning. She eventually did well to finish seventh with a final round score of 133.6.
The event also saw reigning Olympic Champion and World No.1 Mengxue Zhang of China being beaten by compatriot Yuemei Lin to the gold.
The issue went down to the 20th and last shot where Lin prevailed with a score of 240.8 to Zhang's 237.8. The bronze went to Singapore's Shun Xie Teo.
China maintained their Golden sweep of all the rifle and pistol events held thus far, winning their fourth and fifth gold medals of the tournament on Sunday.
They now lead the medals tally with five gold and four silver. Italy are a distant second with one gold and two silver.
India share the fifth place with seven other countries, having taken just one bronze medal so far.
Sunday also witnessed the final of the Trap Mixed Team event. This is the first ISSF World Cup where mixed gender events are being tested out. The medals are not being counted in the overall standings.
The event saw a total of 14 teams of which six qualified for the final round where China beat New Zealand to the gold by a 25-21 margin. The bronze went to Italy who beat Spain 28-21.
