India register best ever ISSF World Cup Final performance

Indias Sangram Dahiya got silver in men's Double Trap and Amanpreet Singh finished with bronze in the mens 50 metre Pistol to make it Indias best ever medal haul at the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) World Cup Final here on Friday.

Apurvi Chandela and Md. Asab had earlier got India a medal each at the 2015 edition.

Sangram and Amanpreet's efforts took India to fourth in the medal standings with an overall haul of one gold, one silver and one bronze medal. India's Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu had won gold in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event on the opening day of the competition.

On the fourth day of the competition at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range, Sangram shot exceedingly well throughout the day, first topping qualifying with a score of 144 out of 150 and then finishing the 80 shot final with a score of 76.

He could not overcome the world record effort of China's 2008 Olympic bronze medallist Hu Binyuan, who shot a sublime 79 out of 80 hits in the final. Davide Gasparini of Italy got bronze with a final round score of 56.

"I am really happy as the hard training over the past three weeks has paid off. I change a couple of things in my technique and its come on really well as the result shows. Hu Binyuan is a legend in Double Trap shooting and it was an honour to go head to head with him. At the end of the day however, you are just competing to better yourself and not against anyone else," Sangram said after his effort.

India's world number one Double Trap shooter Ankur Mittal, who qualified for the six-man final in second position with a score of 139, finished fourth in the final.

He had to leave with 45 against his name after 50 shots. Sangram's first ever medal at the ISSF level however made up for the disappointment.

However, it was Amanpreet Singh who started the good showing, claiming bronze in the men's 50m Pistol behind gold medallist Damir Mikec of Serbia and silver medallist Oleh Omelchuk of Ukraine.

Amanpreet shot 202.2 in the final while Damir shot 229.3 and the Ukranian Omelchuk finished with a score of 228.

India's Jitu Rai was the first to bow out in the final in seventh place. In the qualifying round, Amanpreet had qualified in seventh spot shooting 545 out of 600 while Jitu shot 561 to qualify in fourth position.

In the day's other two finals, Denmark's Torben Grimmel won the men's 50m Rifle Prone with yet another world record score of 250.6 in the final. Germany's reigning Olympic champion Henri Junghaenel took silver with a score of 250.1 while Korea's Kim Jonghyun got the bronze with an effort of 228.7.

In the women's 25m Pistol event, South Korea's Kim Minjung won the gold beating China's former World Champion Jingjing Zhang in the final.

Both Kim and Zhang ended with 34 points each in the final after which Kim prevailed in a shoot-off. Zorana Arunovic of Serbia took the bronze.

--IANS

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