ISSF World Cup: India finish campaign with most medals
India finished with a new high at the ISSF World Cup with two more gold medals on Sunday. The dominant Team India went on to register an incredible tally of 30 medals, most in the tournament by a huge margin. As a result, this turned out to be India's best-ever ISSF World Cup campaign. Here is more on the same.
Most medals in the tournament
India topped the charts with a total of 30 medals, including 15 gold. The country also bagged nine silver and six bronze medals in what could be the last major international outing for rifle and pistol shooters before the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. Meanwhile, the United States of America (USA) and Italy followed India on the tally with eight and four medals respectively.
India won twin gold medals on the final day
On the last day of tournament (Sunday), shotgun shooters Prithviraj Tondaiman, Lakshay Sheoran and Kynan Chenai bagged a gold medal for India in the men's trap team event, beating Slovakia 6-4. Prior to that, the trio of Shreyasi Singh, Rajeshwari Kumari and Manisha Keer claimed gold medal in the women's trap team final after having outclassed Kazakhstan 6-0.
Vijayveer, Gurpreet and Adarsh settled for silver
Earlier, the trio of Vijayveer Sidhu, Gurpreet Singh and Adarsh Singh settled for silver medal in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol team event. They lost 2-10 to USA's Keith Sanderson, Jack Hobson Leverett III and Henry Turner Leverett in the event.
A look at others who bagged medals
Vijayveer won the individual silver medal in the rapid fire event on Friday. On Saturday, he teamed up with Tejaswani to win gold in the 25m rapid fire pistol mixed team event. Meanwhile, the pair of Shreyasi and Kynan Chenai missed out on a podium finish as they settled for fourth place in the trap mixed team final of the tournament.
India's dominance at the Shooting World Cup
India have been ruling the medals chart at the Shooting World Cup since the New Delhi edition in February 2019. It is interesting to note that this was India's sixth successive number one finish at the ISSF World Cup in rifle/pistol events.
NRAI president Raninder Singh expresses his contentment
Speaking on the performance of Indian athletes, National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Raninder Singh said, "Athletes' morale is high, but, as I had said earlier this is not a marker for Olympics. These things matter, psychologically it's important for us." "We've set an example for rest of shooting community so that they don't shy away from not hosting tournaments because of COVID-19."
