On Thursday, April 23, India’s Prachi Gaikwad won the junior women’s 50m rifle 3 positions (3P) at the ongoing ISSF shooting Junior World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun in Cairo, Egypt.
The win got her the gold medal in the event after firing with a shot 354.6 in the finals. She edged past Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN) Darya Chuprys who ended with a shot of 354.4. Meanwhile, AIN Elena Kretinina ended with a bronze after making a score of 343.3. She exited from the 35-shot final after the 34th shot.
India added its third goal in the medal tally and placed at top with three gold, four silver and three bronze medals on Day 3. Vanshika Chaudhary and Sejal Kamble finished first and second position in the junior women’s 10m air pistol finals and delivered a third double podium finish. Vanshika shot 241.3, while Sejal secured 239.6 after the 24-shot final. Liao Ke Rong of Chinese Taipei finished third with 218.3 after 22 shots.
Vanshika, the Asian Championship silver medalist has got her first junior world cup gold. Sejal on the other hand, secured her second silver of the event. Earlier she had finished second in the women’s 25m pistol.
Meanwhile, India’s Prachi was the only representative of her nation in the junior women’s 3P final at the Olympic International City Shooting range. She finished with the sixth spot with a score of 578. After the first 10 shots in the Kneeling position she ended in the fifth spot.
After the Prone round, she surged to second finishing just 0.6 behind Darya, who was leading round. She made a return with a 50+ on the first five shots of the final Standing position. She shot into the lead for the first time in the match. But soon enough Darya found a second wind and fired up a 51.0 over the next five. Prachi missed the 10-ring four times, and went down to third with the last five shots remaining.
Despite the setback, Prachi delivered when it mattered most. She hitted 10-ring four times, including two high 10s, to clinch it from Darya by a margin of 0.2.
