World championship silver medallist Jitu Rai clinched the silver in air pistol, half-a-point behind Felipe Almeida Wu of Brazil, in the shooting World Cup on Saturday.
It was the second medal in a World Cup this season for the 28-year-old Jitu, who had won the free pistol gold in the first World Cup in Bangkok.
He has so far won two gold, three silver and one bronze in the World Cups in the last three years.
Qualifying with a modest score of 580, a total which saw four shooters miss the cut, Jitu led after 10 shots in the final, before slowly losing his advantage.
Scores of 9.1 and 9.6 towards the end saw him slip to the second spot, despite a resounding 10.6 on the final attempt.
Jitu pushed the free pistol gold medallist Jin Jongoh of Korea, the two-time World champion who has won five medals in the last three Olympics, including three gold, to the bronze by 0.5 point.
It was only the third World Cup medal this season for the Indian shooters.
Mairaj Ahmad Khan had won the silver in skeet in the Rio World Cup apart from the two medals by Jitu.
In women’s 25-metre sports pistol, overnight leader Heena Sidhu followed up her 296 in the precision stage with a 286 in the rapid fire section.
However, in the semifinals, the air pistol specialist and world record-holder was unable to assert herself.
The two other shooters who had a 582 during qualification, Antoaneta Boneva of Bulgaria and Kim Jangmi of Korea won the gold and bronze after overcoming shoot-offs in the semifnals.
In men’s double trap, Ankur Mittal shot 137 to miss the final by one point.
The 24-year-old Ankur, Asian champion in 2014, missed a double towards the end of the fifth round, losing out on a well-deserved berth in the knock-out phase after a series of 28, 29, 26, 28 and 26.
He had shot a career-best 144 in the Munich World Cup two years ago.
The results:
Men: 10m air pistol: 1. Felipe Almeida Wu (Bra) 200.0 (580); 2. Jitu Rai 199.5 (580); 3. Jin Jongoh (Kor) 178.8 (586); 28. Omkar Singh 575; 42. Gurpreet Singh 569; MQS: Prakash Nanjappa 563.
Double trap: 1. William Chetcuti (Mlt) 28(2) 29 (138); 2. Marco Innocenti (Ita) 28(1) 29 (139); 3. Mo Junjie (Chn) 28 (28) 139; 4. Artem Nekrasov (Rus) 26 (28) 138; 9. Ankur Mittal 137; 14. Sangram Dahiya 135; 15. Mohd. Asab 134; MQS: Sanjay Rathore 130.
Women: 25m sports pistol: 1. Antoaneta Boneva (Bul) 7 (16)5 (582); 2. Anna Korakaki (Gre) 5 (17) 584; 3. Kim Jangmi (Kor) 8 (14) 582; 4. Chen Ying (Chn) 0 (16)2 (581); 8. Heena Sidhu 6 (582); 32. Anisa Sayyed 572; 34. Surabhi Pathak 571. — Sports Bureau
