Jitu Rai continued to excel on the global stage as he shot a silver medal for the second week in succession in the shooting World Cup in Maribor, Slovenia, on Monday.
After having won the air pistol silver in the last World Cup in Munich, the 26-year-old Jitu missed the gold by 0.1 point in the 50-metre free pistol to Damir Mikec of Serbia.
Qualifying in second place with a national record 568, behind the London Games bronze medallist Zhang Zhiwei (572) of China who eventually failed to win a medal, Jitu shot a brilliant final before being undone by an 8.7 penultimate shot.
Good recoveryEarlier an 8.3 had pushed him out of the lead, and he recovered very well to beat the reigning World Champion Tomoyuki Matsuda of Japan by 2.1 points, to stay in the hunt for the gold.
The Beijing gold medallist and former World Champion Pang Wei of China was pushed to the fourth spot.
There was another medal for the Indian camp, on Sunday, when Ayonika Paul landed the women’s air rifle bronze behind the reigning Olympic and World champion Yi Siling and the World Championship silver medallist Wu Liuxi of China.
The results: Men: 10m air rifle: 1. Zhu Qinan (Chn) 207.6 (625.2); 2. Peter Sidi (Hun) 206.2 (625.7); 3. Milutin Stefanovic (Srb) 184.2 (625.1); 22. Abhinav Bindra 622.9; 36. Chain Singh 620.6; 57. Ravi Kumar 616.1.
50m free pistol: 1. Damir Mikec (Srb) 194.0 (562); 2. Jitu Rai 193.9 (568); 3. Tomoyuki Matsuda (Jpn) 172.9 (562); 12. Om Prakash 554; 17. Gurpal Singh 554. MQS: Vishwajeet Singh 520.
Women: 10m air rifle: 1. Yi Siling (Chn) 209.6 (421.9); 2. Wu Liuxi (Chn) 207.6 (420.6); 3. Ayonika Paul 185.3 (417.3); 10. Apurvi Chandela 415.8; 33. Pooja Ghatkar 412.1. MQS: Raj Chaudhary 412.8.
25m sports pistol: 1. Monika Karsch (Ger) 7 (21) 588; 2. Gundegmaa Otryad (Mgl) 5 (21) 584; 3. Antoaneta Boneva (Bul) 7 (18) 583; 4. Renata Tobai Sike (Hun) 5 (14) 583; 10. Anisa Sayyed 582; 28. Annu Raj Singh 573; 46. Gauri Sheoran 565.
