Saurabh Chaudhary wins first medal for India at Lima Shooting World Cup

Ace shooter Saurabh Chaudhary opened India's medal account with a bronze in the men's 10m air pistol event on day one of the year's second ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun stage here on Tuesday.

China's Hu Kai won gold with a score of 246.4, just 0.1 off the world record, while Brazil's Olympic medalist Felipe Almeida Wu won the silver.

Saurabh, a gold medallist at the 2018 Asian Games and Youth Olympics, settled for bronze with 219.1, bowing out after the 22nd shot at the Las Palmas shooting range.

Earlier, Saurabh and Varun Tomar had made the top-eight final cut, with the former finishing fifth with a score of 578 in the qualification, while the latter clinched the eighth spot with 576. 

Both the Indians also made a bright start to the final with Saurabh in second and Varun in third after the first five shots as a second Chinese, Xie Yu, took the early lead.

However, the Indian duo found it hard to hit the 10-ring thereafter as Hu threatened to pull away after the first two singles shots. Austrian Richard Zechmeister was the first to be eliminated.

German legend and former Olympic and world champion Christian Reitz was next out, as a 10.9 from Varun for his 14th took him up to seventh. Saurabh also took a first step to move higher up the ladder with a 10.7 for his 14th shot.

The nine-syndrome got to Varun again, even as Saurabh, with a 10.2 and a 10.6, moved up to second after the 16th.

As Xie bowed out in fifth after the 18th, the battle for the minor medals was clearly between Saurabh and Wu as Kai and Varun seemed on opposite ends of the spectrum.

The fight expected never came in the 21st and 22nd shots from Saurabh, as he hit 9.6 for both, paving the way for Wu to take the silver. Kai in the end missed the world record by a whisker.