ISSF World Championships: Udhayveer Singh wins individual gold; leads Indian team to top spot in junior men's 25m pistol event

Changwon: Udhayveer Singh, all of 16, shone bright with an individual gold in the junior men’s 25m pistol event after spearheading India to the team gold in the World Shooting Championships on Thursday. [caption id=“attachment_4978791” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representative image. AFP[/caption] Singh shot a score of 587 (291 in precision and 296 in rapid) in the individual competition to grab the gold ahead of American Henry Leverett (584) and Korean Lee Jaekyoon (582). Compatriot Vijayveer Sidhu finished fourth with a score of 581, while Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu took the 20th spot with a score of 568. The trio’s combined score of 1736 fetched the team gold for India followed by China, which totalled 1730. The bronze medal went to Korea, which shot a score of 1721. In the senior competition, Sheeraz Sheikh was the best-placed Indian at eighth after day one of the men’s skeet qualification with a score of 49. Angad Vir Singh was 69th after shooting 47, while Mairaj Ahmed (41) was further down at 79th. The Indian team, comprising the trio, was 16th in the overall standings with a score of 137. There were no medals for India in the 25m centre fire pistol event with Gurpreet Singh managing to reach 10th spot with a score of 581, followed by London Olympics silver-medallist Vijay Kumar. Kumar tallied 576 to end a disappointing 24th. A spot behind him was Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Anish Bhanwala, who shot the same score but had lesser inner-10s to his credit. The team signed off fourth with a score of 1733. India are placed fourth in the medals tally with nine gold, eight silver and seven bronze medals for a total of 24, making this their best performance in the International Shooting Sport Federation’s showpiece. The country has managed to clinch two Olympic quota places from the first qualifying event for Tokyo 2020 Games.