India’s medals-table lead was supercharged after a golden third day at the ISSF Junior World Championships in Lima on which their trio in the women’s 10m air rifle team competition set a Qualifying World Record Junior mark of 1894.8.
Further Indian victories in the men’s 10m air rifle individual and team events and men’s 25m pistol team event added three more golds to their total, leaving them top of the tree with six golds, a silver and three bronzes.
China, thanks to Wang Zifei’s win in the women’s 10m air rifle individual final, are second with two golds and a silver, with the United States third on a total of eight medals comprising one gold, four silvers and three bronzes.
Meanwhile in the first individual shotgun finals of the Championships there were surprise victories in the men’s and women’s finals for, respectively, Greece’s Panagiotis Gerochristos, who beat the two-time American champion Ben Keller, and Madeleine Russell of Great Britain.
India’s ambitions for these Championships, made clear by the fact that they have fielded a team of 60 – 20 more than the next largest team from the United States – are being steadily realised at the Las Palmas Shooting Range in the Peruvian capital.
Gautami Banot, Shambhavi Kshirsagar and Anushka Thokur were the athletes setting a new standard in the 10m air rifle women team event, finishing clear of the United States, who totalled 1881.8, and Norway, who earned bronze on 1876,7.
The men’s 10m air rifle proved a personal triumph for Parth Rakesh Mane, (pictured), who partnered Ajay Malik and Abhinav Shaw to team gold on 1883.5 ahead of the United States and Germany.
He then claimed the individual title by just 0.7 from China’s Liwanlin Huang, a gold medallist in the mixed team, with a total of 250.
Braden Peiser of the United States took bronze.
Wang, who had partnered Huang to win the mixed team title, prevented an Indian clean sweep in the 10m air rifle events as she secured individual gold with a total of 253.0.
France’s mixed team silver medallist Oceanne Muller scored 251.6 for silver, with Katie Zaun of the United States finishing third.
The men’s 25m pistol team event saw India’s Mukesh Nelavalli, Pradhyumn Singh and Suraj Sharma win with a total of 871 from Poland, who scored 858, and Norway, who totalled 853.
In the skeet men, Gerochristos finished with a total of 56 hits, two ahead of Keller, with bronze going to Poland’s Wiktor Pyra.
The women’s individual skeet final saw Russell finish three hits clear on 51, with Gracelynn Hensley of the United States taking silver and bronze going to Italy’s Arianna Nember.