The 12-member Indian rifle squad opened their account at the ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun in Baku, Azerbaijan, with gold in the 10m air rifle women’s team competition on Tuesday. The trio of Elavenil Valarivan, Ramita and Shreya Agrawal outplayed Denmark 17-5 in the gold-medal match.
They had reached the gold-medal round after two rounds of qualification on Monday. Denmark, represented by Anna Nielsen, Emma Koch and Rikke Maeng Ibsen, had beaten the Indian team in the last-eight stage but the Indians stepped up when it mattered most. Poland won bronze in the event.
The Indian men’s air rifle team fell short in their bronze-medal match against Croatia, going down 10-16. Here too, the tables were turned as Rudrankksh Patil, Paarth Makhija and Dhanush Srikanth had beaten the Croats in the last-eight stage.
India are fifth on the medals table, with Serbia leading the tally with two gold and a total of four medals.
