At the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun stage, Paris Olympian Shriyanka Sadangi became the most recent Indian shooter to qualify for a first-ever individual world cup final during this double-legged South American trip. She qualified in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions (3P) event.

After the 10th stroke of the Standing Position round and the 40th of the 45-shot final, Shriyanka finally ended in eighth place and left the competition. The silver medallist from Paris, Sagen Maddalena of the USA, took home the gold.

With three golds and six medals, Sagen’s performance propelled the United States to the top of the medal standings. With two golds, a silver, and a bronze apiece, India finished the third day of the tournament in second place.

Overall, Indian shooters had a difficult day since none of them advanced to the men’s 3P final and they had a lot of work to do after the men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol (RFP) event’s first qualifying round.

After the first two kneeling and prone positions, the Indians seemed to be out of it in the women’s 3P as well. However, Ashi Chouksey, Shriyanka, and former world cup gold medallist Sift Kaur Samra all stepped up the pace brilliantly in the final standing position to make a run for the qualifying mark.

With a strong 588, Shriyanka managed to secure seventh place, but Ashi outperformed Sift in accuracy, finishing ninth to the latter’s eleventh, both of them halting at 587 and only missing out by a slim margin.

The Indian started the final strong with a 10.5 on her first try, but she faltered as the race to the finish line got underway. Her greatest opportunity came after she had risen to sixth place with two more second prone position strokes left, but her challenge was successfully smothered by 9.8 and 9.3 returns.

She finished with a final shot of 400.7, closing with a 9.9, and she finished eighth with Brazilian Geovana Meyer.

Aishwary Tomar, Niraj Kumar, and Chain Singh placed 17th, 18th, and 19th in the men’s 3P, respectively. Chain scored 586, while the first two mentioned shot equal scores of 587, missing the final qualifying mark by a few points.

Anish, Vijayveer Sidhu, and Gurpreet Singh all finished day one of qualifying in the men’s RFP outside of the top six qualifying marks, indicating that there was 25m action that day as well. To have a chance at a medal, they will have to perform at their peak in tomorrow’s second rapid-fire round.