ISSF Junior World Cup: Rushiraj Barot strikes gold as India's medal rush continues

Gabala: Indian shooters continued their impressive show in the ISSF Junior World Cup with Rushiraj Barot striking gold in the junior men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event on day three of the competition in Gabala, Azerbaijan on Tuesday. [caption id=“attachment_3013384” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Rushiraj Barot. Prasar Bharti/Twitter[/caption] The 19-year old Indian, who qualified for the six-man final in fifth position with a score of 556 in the qualifying, edged out Lukas Skoumal of the Czech Republic 25-23 to record his first triumph at the Junior World Cup stage. Rushiraj had finished ninth in the same event in the first Junior World Cup of the year held in Suhl, Germany, in May. Sergei Evglevski of Australia won the bronze. India picked up four more medals on Tuesday, including one more gold, to sit firmly in second place on the medal table, winning six gold, four silver and eight bronze for a total haul of of 18 medals so far. Russia are on top of the medal table with 10 golds for a total of 21 medals. Earlier in the day, Pratik Borse, Arjun Babuta and Prashant won the team gold in the 10m air rifle event with a combined score of 1849.9. The team from Singapore won the silver logging a total of 1847 while Japan won the bronze with a total score of 1846.8. Both Arjun and Pratik also qualified for the individual finals where Arjun Babuta won the bronze medal. Rising Czech talent Filip Nepejchal, who had also won the senior World Cup Gold in the event in Baku earlier this year, won the gold with his last shot, ahead of Japan’s Atsushi Shimada. In the junior men’s 5m pistol, Anmol notched up another medal when he teamed up with Nishant Bhardwaj and Arjun Das to win the team silver medal. Their combined score of 1600 was behind team Russia’s gold medal score of 1640. In the junior women’s 10m air rifle, Dilreen Gill, Geetaksmi Dixit and Aashi Rastogi helped India bag another team bronze. There are two more competition days left for the ISSF Junior World Cup to conclude.