ISSF World Cup: Manavjit Sandhu's finals chances brighten, Jitu Rai misses out

NEW DELHI: Indian shooter Manavjit Sandhu rallied to third place after the second day of qualification in the Men's Trap Shooting event at the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup being held at Rio di Janerio's Olympic Shooting Centre.
Beginning the day in eighth position, former world champion Manavjit shot a 24 to match second-placed Briton Edward Ling's overall score of 72 but two behind World No.2 Alberto Fernandez of Spain who is on top with 74.
Meanwhile, Jitu Rai, who is world No. 1 in 50M pistol, narrowly missed out on the finals of the Men's 10M Air Pistol. Jitu shot a score of 580 in qualification to finish ninth, missing out on a top eight finals berth on account of lesser inner 10s.
At least two other shooters including JurajTuzinsky of Slovakia, who went on to win the gold in the event, had shot the same score as Jitu's. He will also take heart from the fact that he beat his Korean rival Jin Jongoh, a triple Olympic Gold medallist, to 12th place.
Li Du of China won the Rio ISSF World Cup's first gold medal in the women's 10M Air Rifle event. Daria Dovina of Russia and Selina Gschwandtner of Germany won the silver and bronze respectively.
India's best finish in the event came from Pooja Ghatkar, who secured 11th position with a score of 417.2 in qualification, a mere 0.3 points away from the finals mark. Ayonika Paul came in 13th with 416.4, while Apurvi Chandela finished 20th with a score of 415.7.
In other Indian performances of the day, Gurpreet Singh in the Men's 10M Pistol finished in 17th place shooting 577, while Prakash Nanjappa in the same event shot 569 to end in 50th position.
In Women's Trap, Seema Tomar finished 26th shooting a score of 60 in an event where Chinese Taipei's Yi Chun Lin won the gold.
Zoravar Sandhu in the Men's Trap lay in 30th place with a score of 68. In the same event, Kynan Chenai was in 46th place with a score of 66.