Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Indian mixed teams in both the rifle and pistol events missed out on medals on the opening day of the international shooting season’s fourth and final International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol stage at the Ningbo Olympic Sports Center, with neither pairs making it to the medal matches.
In the pistol mixed team event, the Indian pairs finished 11th and 13th in qualification, while in the rifle mixed team, the Indian pairs were placed 14th and 34th. In the air pistol mixed team event, India’s first pair of Surbhi Rao (284) and Amit Sharma (290) registered a combined qualification score of 574-20x to finish 11th. The second pair, Olympian Rhythm Sangwan (289) and Nishant Rawat (282), finished 13th with a score of 571-15x.
The gold medal went to China’s in-form pair, Qianxun Yao and Kai Hu, who claimed a dominant 17-5 victory over Czechia’s Veronika Schejbalova and Jindrich Dubovy. This was back-to-back World Cup golds for the Chinese pair after their triumph in Munich, adding to their silvers in Buenos Aires and Lima earlier this year. Hungary’s Veronika Major and Akos Karoly Nagy secured the bronze, defeating the Neutral Athletes’ team of Iana Enina and Anton Aristarkhov 17-13.
In the air rifle mixed team event, India’s Ramita Jindal (312.9) and Umamahesh Maddineni (315.7) shot 628.6 to finish 14th. The second pair of Meghana M. Sajjanar (312.8) and Divyansh Singh Panwar (309.3) managed 622.1, placing them 34th.
