The Indian shooters finished with a rich collection of 11 gold, nine silver and seven bronze medals to finish third behind China and Korea in the 52nd World shooting championships which concluded here on Friday.
It was a giant leap by the Indians who had won just a silver and bronze in the previous edition in Granada, Spain, in 2014.
China (20 gold, 15 silver, 8 bronze) and Korea (11, 14, 11) took the top two spots among the 36 countries in the medals table. As many as 3314 shooters from 88 countries took part in the competition. India fielded 142 shooters, including 63 juniors.
India’s previous best haul came in 2006 in Zagreb when it clinched gold medals through Abhinav Bindra, Manavjit Singh Sandhu and junior Navnath Fartade.
Youngsters shine
In the current edition, the youngsters continued to excel as Vijayveer Sidhu bagged the standard pistol gold and powered the team to the gold with Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu and Adarsh Singh.
Vijayveer’s twin brother Udhayveer Sidhu had earlier clinched the sports pistol gold and piloted the team to the gold in the company of Vijayveer and Rajkanwar.
The results: Men: 25m standard pistol: 1. Pavlo Korostylov (Ukr) 581; 2. Gurpreet Singh 579; 3. Kim Junhong (Kor) 579; Team: 1. France 1716; 2. Korea 1709; 3. Ukraine 1704; 4. India 1699.
25m centre fire pistol: 1. Julio Almeida (Bra) 591; 2. Christian Reitz (Ger) 588; 3. Pavlo Korostylov (Ukr) 586; 10. Gurpreet Singh 581; Team: 1. Korea 1743; 2. France 1737; 3. China 1736; 4. India 1733.
300m rifle 3-position: 1. Aleksi Leppa (Fin) 1172; 2. Istvan Peni (Hun) 1169; 3. Gilles Vincent Dufaux (Sui) 1167; Team: 1. Austria 3469; 2. Switzerland 3461; 3. France 3459; 8. India 3335.
Junior men: 25m standard pistol: 1. Vijayveer Sidhu 572; 2. Lee Gunhyeok (Kor) 570; 3. Zhu Haojia (Chn) 565; 4. Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu 564; 10. Adarsh Singh 559; Team: 1. India 1695; 2. Korea 1693; 3. Czech Republic 1674.
25m sports pistol: 1. Udhayveer Sidhu 587; 2. Henry Turner Leverett (USA) 584; 3. Lee Jaekyoon (Kor) 582; 4. Vijayveer Sidhu 581; Team: 1. India 1736; 2. China 1730; 3. Korea 1721.
Junior women: Skeet: Team: 1. China 349; 2. USA 345; 3. Russia 334; 4. India 318.
