Anuradha Devi wins silver medal on ISSF World Cup debut

Anuradha Devi won a silver medal in the women’s 10m air pistol event at the ISSF World Cup in Cairo, Egypt. The debutant finished only behind Rio Olympics champion Anna Korakakki of Greece. Anuradha, 33, squeezed through to the final round with an eighth and final place finish in the qualifying round. In the final, she shot blazingly to take the second step on Friday. Anuradha’s feat gave India their first medal of the in an Olympic year which will see six ISSF World Cup stages. Earlier, Sagar Dangi had reached the final in the men’s 10m air pistol but failed to capitalise on the opportunity, finishing sixth. Paris quota holder Rhythm Sangwan also reached the women’s final, qualifying first with a score of 584, but missed out on a medal with a fourth-place finish. Anuradha shot 575 in the qualification round and just about qualified on higher inner 10s, but in the final she held her own. She had a great second five-shot series in the 24-shot final to move up to second at the end of 10-shots, with Korakakki in a class of her own at the top. In between, Rhythm moved ahead of her after the 15th, but Anuradha came back with a vengeance with seven straight scores of 10 or above to not only account for her countrywoman, but beating Kazakh Irina Yunusmetova to bag the silver. Anuradha’s final score of 239.9 in the end was 1.2 behind Korakakki. Among other Indians, Manu Bhaker shot 572 in the women’s pistol event to finish 15th, while Ujjwal Malik (579) and Ravinder Singh (577) also finished outside the top-eight. In men’s trap, Zoravar Sandhu was the best placed Indian with a three-round score of 70 and currently is in share of the 15th spot while in the women’s trap, Rajeshwari Kumari was lying 19th with a score of 64.