Asian Games silver medallist Deepak Kumar shot 628.3 and missed the final by 1.2 points in men’s air rifle in the shooting World Cup in Munich on Tuesday.
After the high of winning three gold medals, setting up world records and winning an Olympic quota on the first two days, it was a lull for the Indian camp, in the only final of the day.
Deepak had shot 630.1 in the World Championship in Korea last year, when he placed sixth and narrowly missed the Olympic quota, when the top four were awarded the Olympic berth. He has not reached such a high score since then in the World Cups.
Interestingly, the 19-year-old Filip Nepejchal of the Czech Republic, who qualified in the eighth place with 629.5, went on to strike the gold ahead of Petar Gorsa of Croatia and the qualification topper Yang Haoran (632.5) of China.
Olympic quota places
The Olympic quota places were bagged by Oleh Tsarkov of Ukraine and Marco Suppini of Italy, who placed fifth and sixth respectively.
Meanwhile, in the elimination rounds of the women’s rifle 3-position event, Gaayathri Nithyanandam (1173), Sundihi Chauhan (1171) and Kajal Saini (1167) performed creditably to put themselves in the qualification list for Wednesday.
However, there were many high scores, hinting at an intense competition for the final on the morrow, as Jenny Stene of Norway topped the elimination round with a World record 1185.
With women’s air pistol and men’s rapid fire pistol scheduled for Wednesday, apart from the women’s rifle 3-position event, the Indian shooters will have a lot to aim, even as they lead the medals table with three gold, followed by China with one gold, one silver and four bronze medals.
The results: Men’s air rifle: 1. Filip Nepejchal (Cze) 250.8 (629.5), 2. Petar Gorsa (Cro) 249.5 (630.0), 3. Yang Haoran (Chn) 229.0 (632.5); 19. Deepak Kumar 628.3; 31. Divyansh Singh Panwar 627.6; 86. Ravi Kumar 621.4. MQS: Tejas Krishna Prasad 627.5; Sandeep Singh 627.3 .
