NEW DELHI: Former junior world champion Hriday Hazarika of Assam and Nancy of Haryana won their first individual senior World Cup shooting medals on Friday, Clinching silver in the men's and women's 10m air rifle disciplines in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Hazarika shot wonderfully in the final, with his lowest score of 10.1 coming in the opening shot of the 24-shot game. Nancy went even better, with a final score of 10.2.
However, both were defeated by more precise shooters on the day. Hriday was defeated by Hungary's Zalan Pekler, who shot 252.4 to his 251.9, while Nancy, who had a 0.1 lead over China's Han Jiayu heading into the final two strokes, could not hold on to the lead, finishing with 253.3 to her opponents' 254.0.
With two days to go, China and India are embroiled in a war for supremacy. China leads the medal tally with two gold, one silver, and two bronze, while India has one gold, two silver, and one bronze.
After the game, Hriday was the first to admit that Zalan was simply too talented "on the day." Pekler, who won gold in the 10m air rifle at the previous World Cup event in Lima last month, impressed from the start, shooting 636.2 to finish second.
China's bronze medalist and Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Sheng Lihao, who topped qualification with a scorching 637.9, smashed his own world mark established in Bhopal in March.
When asked if he expected this performance at the start of the day, Hriday replied, "Not really. I did not have any expectations as such. Just wanted to do my best and shoot according to the plan. I am happy that I was able to execute well today."
Hriday started with a 10.1 and finished second after the first five-shot series, barely 0.8 behind Zalan.
As others dropped out, Zalan and Hriday retained their positions until the 20th shot, when Sheng pipped Hriday to second with a 10.9 in his 20th shot. However, as the Chinese failed on the 21st, Hriday earned his top-two finish, but despite his best efforts, he was unable to catch up with Zalan, eventually finishing just 0.5 behind.
Rudrankksh Patil and Shahu Tushar Mane, the other two Indians in the field, finished 19th and 23rd with scores of 628.8 and 628.1, respectively. Divyansh Singh Panwar and Arjun Babuta, who were solely competing for ranking points, also had strong performances.The former scored 633.1, while the later scored 630.6.
Nancy's path to silver was significantly more difficult because she did not have as strong a start in the final as Hriday had, despite qualifying seventh with a score of 631.6. Han Jiayu won with 634.3, while two other Indians, Ramita (631.4) and Tilottama Sen (629.7) finished ninth and fifteenth, respectively, despite shooting well.
"It was certainly the best performance of my career," said the Haryana player after the match.
Nancy was fourth after the first five shots, and by the time Jeannette was eliminated after the 12th shot, the Indian had climbed up to sole third.
Nina then left in seventh position, with Nancy moving up to equal second with Chinese Huang Yuting. By the conclusion of the 16th, she was a full point behind Han, and by the time she confirmed her medal with a 10.8 for her 19th and a 10.7 for her 20th, she was 0.6 behind the leader.
She kept up her strong performance, and two more shots of 10.8 and 10.7 put her 0.1 ahead of Han going into the final two shots. However, Han hit 10.7 to the Indian's 10.3 on the 23rd, and with 0.3 to make up in the last shot, Nancy fired a 10.2 to Han's 10.6 to hand the victory to the Chinese.
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