India’s Vijayveer Sidhu won the silver medal behind Estonia’s Peeter Olesk after a shoot-off in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol final of the ISSF World Cup in Delhi on Friday.
With 26 hits each, both were tied for the top spot at the end of the 40-shot final. In the shoot-off, after having shot brilliantly to score four out of five hits in the eighth and final series, Sidhu managed just one.
Under no pressure, Olesk got four hits to win the top prize after a consistent showing though the finals.
The other Indian shooters in the final, Anish Bhanwala and Gurpreet Singh were the first two to be eliminated, while Poland’s Oskar Miliwek bagged the bronze with 20.
India had the chance of a direct Tokyo 2020 Olympic quota spot had one of the three won gold or a silver behind Peru’s Marko Carrillo, who is ineligible for the quota based on world ranking.
Earlier in Qualification 2, Olympian Gurpreet was the best-placed Indian at third with a total of 581, having shot 290 in the first stage and 291 in the second.
Bhanwala was in fifth place with a total score of 579 and Sidhu too made the cut after managing to grab the sixth and final qualifying slot with an aggregate of 579 over the two stages.
Carrillo topped the final qualifying with 582 and he was followed by Peeter Olesk of Estonia. Miliwek was in fourth place.
With PTI Inputs
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