Indian shooters Rudrankksh Patil and Arya Borse secured the silver medal in the 10m air rifle mixed team event at the ISSF World Cup in Lima, Peru, on Sunday. The duo lost 11-17 in the final to Norway’s Jon-Hermann Hegg and Jeanette Hegg Duestad at the Las Palmas Shooting Range.
This silver adds to India’s growing medal tally, taking it to two gold, three silver and one bronze. The country is currently placed third in the standings, behind China and the USA.
In the qualification round, Rudrankksh and Arya posted a combined score of 632.5, narrowly missing the top spot by just 0.1 points to the same Norwegian pair. The final proved tough, as their rivals — both experienced Olympians — held on to the edge they had.
Another Indian duo, Arjun Babuta and Narmada Nithin, ended in seventh place, with a total of 630.0 in the 24-team field.
Patil, who missed out on the individual medal due to a technical error on his part, got his hand on a silver in the mixed event. Did it make up for it? Speaking to ISSF Media, he said: “No! Not at all. I am happy to win this one, but I have taken lessons from that mistake. It generally doesn’t happen to many players and it’s a rare scenario. However, I am happy that it happened here and will be able to rectify my issues and take lessons from it and improve in the coming days.”
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Borse, who is currently participating in her first senior World Cup circuit, expressed her joy after winning the medal. “It has been a rollercoaster journey so far in this World Cup phase. I am happy to win this medal but more importantly, I have learnt so much from this campaign which will help me in the coming days,” said Borse.
Meanwhile, Indian shooters fell short in the trap events. In the women’s event, Pragati Dubey came closest to qualifying for the finals, finishing seventh with a score of 113 — just one spot shy. Bhavya Tripathi (110) and Neeru (105) placed 12th and 18th, respectively.
In the men’s trap, none of the Indian shooters made it to the finals. Prithviraj Tondaiman and Zoravar Sandhu ended with 117 and 116, while Lakshay Sheoran, even with a round remaining, could not surpass 118 — below the qualifying threshold.
In the women’s 25m pistol, the initial duelling round saw Manu Bhaker shoot 291 (96, 99, 96) to sit second on the leaderboard. Esha Singh was also in the top six with 289, while Simranpreet Kaur Brar’s 286 placed her ninth at the end of the day. The trio will return to action on Monday, the final day of the competition, for the second round of rapid-fire — with hopes of making it to the finals.
