ISSF World Cup: Divyansh Singh Panwar grabs bronze in 10m air rifle; Anjum Moudgil finishes fifth

India’s Divyansh Singh Panwar grabbed bronze medal in the 10m air rifle event at the ISSF Shooting World Cup at Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi on Saturday. The other Indian in the final, Arjun Babuta, though finished fifth. Panwar did not start well, lagging behind Babuta at sixth after 12 shots with a difference of 1 point between number three and him. But he raised his game from thereon, shooting a 10.5 on the 13th shot and jumping to the 4th spot after 14 shots, sharing the same points as his countryman Babuta who shot 10.3 and 10.1 respectively.

#DivyanshPanwar wins Bronze medal 🥉 in the Men’s 10M Air Rifle for #India at the @ISSF_Shooting World Cup New Delhi 2021

— NRAI (@OfficialNRAI) March 20, 2021

The inconsistent Babuta shot a poor 9.9 on his 15th shot and was elimiated soon, settling with fifth place finish. Panwar was in a stiff battle with Israel’s Sergey Richter with a difference of only 0.3 points between the two shooters. Pressure got better of the Israeli as he shot a poor 9.6 while Panwar hit 10.6 to make up for the difference. Richter did well to finish, shooting a 10.7 on his 20th shot but Panwar, shooting with a gun painted by Anjum Moudgil, even with a 10.3 shot, ensured a bronze medal for himself. He was however eliminated after 22 shots, finishing with 228.1 points. USA’s Lucas Kozeniesky and Hungary’s Istavan Peni fought hard for the gold medal from the start, fighting an individual battle of their own. Kozeniesky maintained a good lead from the start but Peni was not far behind and kept his search on throughout for the No 1 spot. By the end of 22 shots, Peni was 0.9 points behind the leader. The last two shots however saw a lot of drama as Peni hit a 10.5 while Kozeniesky managed a 10.4 shot. Peni delivered 10.5 on his last shot and missed out on the gold by a whisker as under-pressure Kozeniesky hit a poor 9.8 as his last shot, winning the battle by 0.1 points. Moudgil finishes fifth In the women’s final of the 10m air rifle, the only Indian in the last eight Anjum Moudgil finished fifth. She started off with a 10.4 shot but then a couple of 9s saw her playing catch-up with others throughout the match. From thereon, she did not hit a single 9 but the stiff competition from others meant she had to settle with a fifth position finish at the end of the final. The gold and silver medal went to USA, with Mary Carolynn Tucker and Alison Marie Weisz finishing at No 1 and No 2 respectively. Eszter Denes of Hungary grabbed the bronze medal, finishing with 230.2 points after 22 shots.