India shines with 7 medals at the Plzen Shooting Championships

Indians shooters showcased a performance worth remembering at the Plzen Shooting Championships in the Czech Republic on Sunday. The Indian medal tally totalled seven with one gold, two silver, and four bronze medals. In the women’s 10-metre air pistol event, Indian star Heena Sidhu bagged bronze with a total of 218.8.

Indian dominance was showed in the Men’s 25-metre Standard Pistol event. India swept all the medals in that category. Neeraj Kumar won gold while Harpreet Singh won the silver medal. Deepak Sharma bagged the bronze in the same event. Women’s Rifle shooter Tejaswini Sawant also won silver in the 50m Rifle Prone event. Pemba Tamang won bronze in the Men’s 25m Centre Fire Pistol.

Heena Sidhu had to settle for bronze in the 10m Air Pistol event where the Rio Olympic gold medallist Anna Korakaki from Greece won the gold. The German, Michelle Skeires came at the second position ahead of Heena with a score of 237.8. India’s Shri Nivetha Paramanantham also qualified for the finals but finished fourth behind Heena.

The Indian contingent managed to qualify for the finals of several other events. It included Pooja Ghatkar finishing fourth in Women’s 10m Air Rifle, Gurpreet Singh finishing 6th in the Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol, and Chain Singh finishing seventh in the Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions final.

Indian veteran and former Olympic Bronze medallist Gagan Narang stood fourth in the Men’s 50-metre Rifle Prone event. He was representing his academy Gun for Glory for the first time. Sushil Ghaley finished fifth in the same event.

With the second stage of the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) World Cup for Rifle and Pistol approaching this month in Munich, Germany, this performance is laudable for the Indian contingent ahead of the big event.