Apurvi Chandela on Sunday bagged the women’s 10m air rifle gold to get India off to a blistering start in the ISSF World Cup in Munich. Chandela’s total score in the final was 251.
China’s Luyao Wang narrowly finished behind Chandela with a score of 250.8 while her compatriot Hong Xu (229.4) took the bronze medal. India’s Elavenil Valarivan finished fourth in the finals with a score of 208.3.
Chandela finished with a total score of 633 in qualifying while Valarivan tallied 632.7. Earlier this year, the 26-year-old won the 10m air rifle gold following a world record score of 252.9 in the final at the New Delhi World Cup. Last week, she also became the best in the world. Chandela was also among the first to win quotas for the 2020 Olympics after finishing fourth at the world championships.
Earlier, all three Indians in the 149-strong qualifying field had a solid day with Apurvi and Elavenil taking the top two spots with scores of 633 and 632.7 after 60-shots each. Anjum Moudgil shot 628.9 to finish in 11th place, just 1.1 points outside the final qualifying score of 630.0.
Indians had good returns in the days other events as well. After the first round of qualifying in the women’s 25m Pistol, Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat stood in second position with a score of 294. A good rapid fire round on Monday and she would fancy a shot at medals and quota. Manu Bhaker shot 289 and was a bit behind the pace in 24th spot while Chinki Yadav shot 276 to be in 95th place.
The two Tokyo 2020 Olympic quotas available on the day went to Laura-Georgeta Coman of Romania and 16-year old Hungarian Eszter Meszaros, who finished 5th and 6th respectively in the women’s 10m air rifle. Monday has three finals on the schedule with six Tokyo quota places up for grabs.
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