ISSF World Cup: Indian shooters Lajja, Anjum narrowly miss final qualification

Munich: Indian shooters Anjum Moudgil and Lajja Gauswami shot well but narrowly missed out on qualification to the final of women’s rifle 3 position event in the ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Cup in Munich on Tuesday. Anjum and Lajja, competing on day four of the tournament at the Olympic Shooting Centre, shot identical scores of 582 in their qualification round to eventually finish at 15th and 17th spots respectively. [caption id=“attachment_2797236” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photograph of Indian shooter Lajja Gauswami. Getty[/caption] It was a closely fought qualification round where four out of the eight women, who made it to the final, had scores of 583, just one point ahead of the Indian pair. Anjum can take heart from the fact that in only her second year as a member of the senior India team, she has registered her best performance in a World Cup. Not only is this her best finish but also her highest score in a World Cup. Snjezana Pejcic of Croatia won the gold in the event, while Anzela Voronova of Estonia clinched the silver and Petra Zublasing of Italy bagged the bronze medal. In the men’s 10-metre air pistol, the other medal event of the day, India’s Jitu Rai, while finishing 8th in his qualification relay, eventually ended in 22nd place with a score of 579. Gurpreet Singh shot 578 to finish 32nd. Omkar Singh, the other Indian in the fray, shot 574 to finish 52nd. Prakash Nanjappa, who shot in the Minimum Qualification Score (MQS) section, shot a score of 576. Oleh Omelchuk of Ukraine won the gold in the event. The silver went to Ismail Keles of Turkey and Xuan Vinh Hoang of Vietnam bagged the bronze. Day five will see two medal events – women’s 10-metre air pistol and the men’s 50-metre rifle 3 position finals.