Ace shooters Jitu Rai & Heena Sidhu gives India their first medal at ongoing ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol, Gabala, Azerbaijin by combining superbly to claim gold in the mixed team 10m air pistol event.
Jitu and Heena forged a stirring recovery from 0-4 to 7-6, thus giving India's shooting contingent at the tournament reason to cheer as the performance has been below par from some of the Indian shooters.
The pair had also won gold at the ISSF World Cup held in New Delhi earlier this year.
This news will also come as a delight for Indian fans because the mixed team air pistol event is one of the new events added for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Enroute my journy back frm injury won team Gold wid Jitu. Wudnt have been possibl without these 2 naughty @OGQ_India physios n @CoachRonak pic.twitter.com/4WmAJ9uufD
— Heena SIDHU (@HeenaSidhu10) June 12, 2017
During the tournament, India's Sanjeev Rajput could not qualify for the final of men's 50m rifle prone event, in which 2012 Olympic medalist Gagan Narang was 25th. In the 10m air pistol event, Jitu - a two-time Times of India Sports Awards (TOISA) winner - finished 12th after he shot a total of 576, ahead of Prakash (575) and Omkar Singh (574).
In all, 430 athletes from 45 countries are competing for medals at the Gabala World Cup, which is the last chance for rifle and pistol shooters to qualify for the ISSF World Cup Finals, which has the eight best shooters of the world in each Olympic discipline along with reigning Olympic and World Championship medalists and wild-cards squaring-off with each other.
India are represented by a 23-member Rifle and Pistol squad. There are 12 women and 11 men in the squad.
So far, the tournament is not so good for Indian shooters but this Gold will surely come as a relief who didn't won a medal in last World Cup too!!