Celebrated Indian shooter Jitu Rai shot his way to a bronze medal in the men’s 10-metre air pistol event at the ongoing ISSF Shooting World Cup on Sunday.
An Asian and Commonwealth Games gold-medallist, Jitu aggregated a total of 181.1 points to finish third on the podium, missing out on the gold medal shoot-out by 0.4 points.
This is Jitu’s seventh medal in international events, following a run that started last June.
The other Indians in the 10m air pistol, Prakash Nanjappa and Gurpreet Singh finished 18th and 48th, respectively in the qualification round.
At one stage however it looked all lost for Jitu, but he overcame a sluggish start in the qualification round, where shooters have to shoot a total of 60 shots, to just about make it to the final round in 8th position with a score of 581.
In the eight-man final as well, Jitu started off slowly, unable to score 10 or more with his shots with any form of regularity, before coming into his own midway through the finals to clinch the bronze.
Jitu’s Korean rival and world number one Jin Jongoh was, meanwhile, shooting on a different planet and won the top prize with a finals world record score of 206.
“The phenomenon of Jitu Rai has surfaced again, adding to his rich haul of medals since last year. This only showcases the class that this young Army Marksman possesses and what strength he adds to the Indian contingent,” said National Rifle Association of India’s president Raninder Singh.
In the men’s 50-metre rifle prone event, Chain Singh missed out on a medal finishing sixth after qualifying for the finals. He tallied 123.6.
Yesterday, Apurvi Chandela became the second Indian shooter to bag a quota for the Games after winning the 10-metre air rifle bronze in the Korean city. Apurvi shot a total of 185.6 in the finals, to finish behind Pejcic Snjezana of Croatia and Ivana Maksimovic of Serbia, who clinched silver.
The only other Indian shooter to already have qualified for the Olympics is Jitu Rai himself, after he bagged a silver medal in the World Championships in Granada last September.
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