World Cup Finals: Bhaker narrowly misses out on finals

Manu Bhaker missed out on the finals by a point as India drew a blank on the second competition day of the World Cup Finals for rifle and pistol shooters here on Wednesday.

After Sanjeev Rajput's narrow miss on day one, it was Bhaker in the women's 25m pistol event.

Bhaker shot 583 in qualification, the same score as two other competitors, one of whom made the finals with the Indian losing out on lesser number of inner 10s.

In fact, both Bhaker and Australian Elena Galiabovitch not only had the same score, but also the same number of 17 shots in the inner 10 ring. German Doreen Vennekamp, who also finished with 583, claimed the eighth and final qualifying spot with 23 inner 10s to her credit.

Among other Indians, Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat shot 569 for an 18th-place finish in the women's 25m pistol, while Anish Bhanwala shot 578 in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol to end in 10th position. The top six went through to the finals in the men's event.

Earlier, Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Bhaker shot 292 and 291 in the precision and rapid events respectively for a total of 583 in the qualifiers.

China's Jingjing Zhang claimed a third career WCF gold medal, getting the better of defending champion Kim Minjung of Korea 37-33 in the final. German Monika Karsch won bronze.

In the men's rapid fire, Frenchman Clement Bessaguet struck gold, overcoming Olympic champion Christian Reitz of Germany 32-31 in the final. Jean Quiquampoix of France won bronze.