Indian juniors return from 27th Shooting Hopes meet with 11 medals

India's junior shooting squad returned with a rich haul of 11 medals from the recently-concluded 27th Meeting of the Shooting Hopes, a renowned international shooting competition for future stars in the Rifle and Pistol disciplines, held annually at the Czech city of Plzen.

India won a total of three gold, four silver and four bronze medals.

The four-day competition saw 459 athletes take part from 23 different countries in a total of 14 rifle and pistol events.

Anmol Jain, who recently took part in his first senior International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup stage in Munich, was the most successful Indian on show, winning a team gold and a team silver in the junior men's 10m Air Pistol and 50m pistol events while also bagging an individual Silver in the 50m Pistol event.

Among other notable performers were Arjun Babuta in the junior men's 10m air rifle, who won silver with a final round score of 249 and a qualification score of 623.9. He lost out to eventual gold medalist Evgeniy Ishchenko of Russia by half a point in the final. Among others he beat in the finals was 2016 Baku World Cup Gold medalist and home favourite Filip Nepejchal.

Also noteworthy were performances by Saurabh Chaudhary in the Junior Men's 10m Air Pistol and Anish in the Junior Men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event. Both won individual Bronze medals.