Jitu Rai bags silver medal at ISFF World Cup Final in Italy

Bologna: Ace Indian shooter Jitu Rai shrugged off the disappointment of a poor Olympic campaign by clinching a silver medal in the 50m pistol event of the ISSF World Cup Final on Thursday. Jitu, ranked seventh in the event, finished second in the qualifying round with a cumulative score of 568 to make it to the finals behind Ukraine’s Oleh Omelchuk and then narrowly lost out to China’s Wei Pang in the final to settle for silver. [caption id=“attachment_2940358” align=“alignleft” width=“381”] File photo of Jitu Rai. Getty[/caption] Jitu started strongly in the finals and shot straight into the lead, before Pang caught up. The Indian then had a poor fourth and fifth series but eventually shot 188.8 to win the second position behind Pang’s score of 190.6. Italy’s Giuseppe Giordano settled for the bronze medal with a score of 170.3 in the final. Only the top 10 shooters in the event, barring world number one Jongoh Jin of South Korea, took part in the event. The ISSF World Cup finals competition is the season-ending competition of the annual calendar. “Congratulations to Jitu Rai. He needs to plan his next four year cycle meticulously,” tweeted India’s first and only individual Olympic gold-medallist Abhinav Bindra referring to Jitu’s Rio Games debacle.

Jitu Rai comes up with a great performance going to the final in Bologna. Well done ! Also goes to show the Olympic Games another ballgame

— Abhinav A. Bindra OLY (@Abhinav_Bindra) October 6, 2016

Congratulations to Jitu Rai. He needs to plan his next four year cycle meticulously .

— Abhinav A. Bindra OLY (@Abhinav_Bindra) October 6, 2016

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