Budding shooter Anushka Thokur added a second gold to her bag, clinching the top spot in women’s 50m rifle 3-positions event even as Adriyan Karmakar won a silver in the men’s section of the same event in a depleted field in the ISSF Junior World Cup. With these two medals, India have taken their tally to 13, including four gold, six silver and three bronze. Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN) are second with three gold, one silver and two bronze, while Italy are third with two gold and a silver.
Thokur, who recently returned home from the Asian Championships with a gold in 50m rifle 3-positions, continued her dream run at her home range by winning her second Junior World Cup gold in four days. She had taken the top spot in women’s 50m rifle prone on the opening day of the competition at the Dr Karni Singh Ranges earlier this week. The teenager shot 461.0 in the final, including a perfect 10.9 on her 35th shot in the standing position, to secure gold. The Indian had earlier qualified for the medal round with a score of 585.
She finished 6.1 points clear of Individual Neutral Athlete Anastasiia, who settled for silver with 454.9 (580 in qualification). Sorokina’s teammate Mariia took the bronze with 444.0, edging out Anastasiia Gorokhova (AIN), who finished fourth on 434.3. Among the other finalists in the event, India’s Mahit Sandhu finished fifth with 422.7, followed by Croatia’s Anamarija Turk (408.9). Prachi Gaikwad ended up seventh with 399.3, while Slovakia’s was eighth with 399.2 in a field that had only 12 athletes of which five were Indians, which has taken much of the sheen away from the achievements of the Indians.