Mumbai: Paralympic medallist Singhraj came up with an impressive performance to claim two gold medals on the final day and propel India to the top of the medals table in the World Shooting Para Sport (WSPS)’s 2022 World Cup event in Munich.
Overall, India finished with 10 medals including six gold, three silver and one bronze to record their best-ever show at a WSPS World Cup event since their first participation in 2017. France (11) and Ukraine (15) took the second and third places with 4 and 3 gold medals respectively in the event that ended on Wednesday.
“What an amazing performance by the Indian Para Shooting team. This is the first time that India has attained the top position at the Shooting World Cup since we started winning medals at World Cup in 2017. Kudos to Chief Coach @nautiyalJP and his team of coaches and support staff!!”, the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) said in a tweet on Thursday.
Singhraj, who qualified in fourth place in P4 – 50m pistol SH1, rode on his steady rounds of shooting to total 224.1 points and record a pillar-to-post finish in the finals. Ukraine’s Denisiuk, who already had gold in P5 – Mixed 10m Air Pistol Standard SH1 final, settled for silver with 216.2 points, ahead of South Korea’s Jeongdu Jo (193.9).
Before the final, Singhraj had combined with Deepender Singh and Manish Narwal to take the Team gold, the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) informed in a release on Thursday.
The individual gold was also Singhraj’s first ever in the P4 event after several silver and bronze medals.
“I am very happy to finally win a gold in this event. I wanted to win it in Chateauroux 2022 in France but had some technical glitches. I am happy that I could execute my plans in Munich. I would like to thank my coaches for the success,” said the 40-year-old, who also has an individual silver and a Team gold in P3- Mixed 25m Pistol SH1 event.
Earlier, India started their campaign in Munich 2022 World Cup on a brilliant note, thanks to Rahul Jakhar’s gold medal performances in P3 – Mixed 25m Pistol SH1 event. Jakhar also combined with Singhraj and Nihal to take the Team gold with a total of 1695-36x ahead of the Republic of Korea and the Czech Republic, the PCI said in a release on Thursday.
Manish Narwal and Rubina Francis followed it up with another gold in P6 – Mixed Team 10m Air Pistol SH1.
The Indian Shooting Para Sport team will next be in action at the Al Ain 2022 World Championships in November.
(IANS)
