Sandhu's chances brighten in shooting, Jitu fails

Manavjit Sandhu rallied to the third place after Day two of qualification in the Men's Trap shooting event at the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup.

Sandhu scored 72 out of 75 at the Rio di Janerio's Olympic Shooting Centre on Saturday, according to a National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) release on Sunday.

He began in the eighth position, shot a 24 to match second placed Briton Edward Ling's overall score but two behind Alberto Fernandez (ranked number two in the world) of Spain who is on top with 74 points.

Meanwhile, Jitu Rai, World No.1 in 50M pistol, narrowly missed out on the finals of the Men's 10M Air Pistol event.

Jitu shot a score of 580 in qualification to finish ninth, missing out on a top eight finals berth.

Li Du of China won the Rio ISSF World Cup's first gold medal in the Women's 10M Air Rifle event. Daria Dovina of Russia and Selina Gschwandtner of Germany won the silver and bronze respectively.

India's best finish in the event came from Pooja Ghatkar, who secured the 11th position with a score of 417.2 in qualification, a mere 0.3 points away from the finals mark.

Ayonika Paul came in 13th with 416.4 while Apurvi Chandela finished 20th with a score of 415.7.

In other Indian performances of the day, Gurpreet Singh in the Men's 10M Pistol finished in the 17th place shooting 577 while Prakash Nanjappa in the same event shot 569 to end in the 50th position.

Seema Tomar in the Women's Trap finished 26th, shooting a score of 60 in an event where Chinese Taipei's Yi Chun Lin won the gold.

Zoravar Sandhu in the Men's Trap lay in the 30th place with a score of 68. In the same event, Kynan Chenai was in the 46th place with a score of 66.