Divyansh-Shreya take bronze at Shooting Worlds

Indias 10m air rifle mixed junior pair of Divyansh Singh Panwar and Shreya Agrawal grabbed the bronze medal at the 52nd ISSF World Championships here on Wednesday.

Divyansh, 15, and Shreya, 17, finished third with the score of 435 points. The gold medal went to Italians Marco Suppini and Sofia Benetti, who created a world record with a score of 499.0 points.

Iran's Sadeghian Armina and Amir Mohammad Nekounam took the silver medal with 497.7 points. China and Denmark finished fourth and fifth respectively.

At the end of the first series of four-series elimination stage, it was 16-year-old Armina and 20-year-old Nekounam who were leading the board with 352.1 points.

Suppini and Benetti turned it around in the second series which gave them 42.3 to take their total to 394.0, with the Iranians having 393.6 and the Indians having 393.0.

Till the end of the penultimate series, Benetti and Suppini were on top with 436.0 points. Armina and Nekounam had 435.6 points. Divyansh and Shreya, with 435.0 points, were eliminated from the race with the bronze medal.

In the next series, the Italian pair got 63.0 to attain a record score of 499.0, as the Iranians could reach 497.7 points.

Suppini and Benetti's score of 499.0 is 0.2 points above the previous record set by Divyansh and Elavenil Valarivan in Suhl, Germany earlier in the year.

Meanwhile, in the women's 50m rifle prone competition, India's Tejaswini Sawant (28th), Anjum Moudgil (33rd) and Shreya Saksena (54th) disappointed. Tejaswini got 617.4 points, Anjum finished with 616.5 points and Shreya bagged 609.9 points.

Anjum had earlier in the week won silver in the 10m air rifle to grab an Olympic quota berth.

In the men's 50m rifle prone event, India's Chain Singh was 14th, with 623.9 points.

--IANS

pur/sed