New Delhi: A sensational Sift Kaur Samra, pulled off a stunning come-from-behind victory in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions (3P) final at the Tiro Federal Argentino de Buenos Aires shooting range late on Friday evening, to claim a first individual ISSF World Cup gold and in the process also helping India win their first yellow medal of the season-opening world cup stage.
The world record holder was a huge 7.2 behind Anita Mangold of Germany, the leader at that stage and eventual silver medalist, after 15-shots in the first Kneeling position, but Sift staged a dream comeback in the second Prone and final Standing positions to win by a canter in the end.
For the record Sift finished with 458.6 at the end of the 45-shot final, while Mangold ended 3.3 behind on 455.3. Junior World Championship medalist Arina Altukhova of Kazakhstan was third, bowing out after the 44th shot with a tally of 445.9.
After missing out on medals in the first final on competition day one, India have now ended competition day two in second spot on the standings with one gold and a bronze, won earlier in the men’s 3P by Chain Singh. China are on top with a gold and a silver each.
To begin with, Sift did extremely well to qualify in top spot with a strong 590, when the likes of reigning Olympic champion Chiara Leone and the previous Olympic champion Nina Christen, both from Switzerland, could not make the top eight. A host of Olympic medalists like Alexandria Le of Kazakhstan and Mary Tucker of the US, also could not cross the qualifying hurdle.
The finals field as is always at this level for still formidable. Among those who made it were Cairo 2022 world champion Miao Wanru of China, Miao’s compatriot and junior air rifle world champion Zifei Wang and the highly talented Swiss 16-year-old Emely Jaeggi, besides Altukhova. Two German Mangold and Nele Stark and Austrian Olivia Hoffman completed the line-up.
Sift could not penetrate the 10-ring to begin with and ended the Kneeling position almost out of the reckoning. She then found her rhythm in her favourite Prone position and by the end of it, brought the gap down with the leader, now Nele Stark, to about 4.3, but still remained in eighth place.
A classy 52.3 in the first series of five Standing shots when all struggled, saw her shoot-up to joint third and she never looked back from there.
A steady second series of 51.2 saw her take the lead for the first time and as the leaderboard shuffled furiously below her, she finished with scores of 10.5, 10.3, 10.5,10.0 and 9.7 for a clinical performance.
Four rounds of qualification were also played out in the men’s and women’s Skeet competitions with Paris Olympian Raiza Dhillon, the best Indian at this stage with one more round of 25-targets coming up on Saturday, before the final on the same day.
Raiza is placed sixth, the final qualifying spot, with a tally of 94 after round of 25, 22, 24 and 23 respectively and was just two off the lead. Ganemat Sekhon was in 11th with 92, while Darshna Rathore (89) was further down in 18th.
In men’s skeet Bhavtegh Gill shot 94 to be in 18th spot, while Anant Jeet Singh Naruka shot 93 and Gurjoat Khangura 91 and the trio will have their task cut out on Saturday.
Saturday has three big finals on the card with the first, the women’s 25m pistol, slated for 7.30 pm Indian Standard Time (IST). That will be followed by the women’s skeet (11 pm IST) and men’s skeet finals (00.30 am IST- Apr 06, 2025)
(IANS)
