1. Heena Sidhu Wins Air Pistol Gold at Commonwealth Shooting Championships.
Continuing her good run this year, ace Indian shooter Heena Sidhu clinched a gold medal in the women`s 10m Air Pistol event at the Commonwealth Shooting Championships, Brisbane on Tuesday.
Heena scored 240.8 in the final to beat Australian Elena Galiabovitch, who shot 238.2 to settle for silver. Bronze went to Kristy Gillman (213.7) of Australia.
Recently, Sidhu and Jitu Rai combined to give India their first gold medal of the ISSF World Cup Final, clinching the top honours in the 10m air pistol mixed team event on the opening day of competitions.
It was historic as the mixed team events have been officially granted medal status at an ISSF World Cup Final.
Among other Indians in fray, Deepak Kumar won a bronze medal in the 10m air rifle event. London Olympic bronze-medallist Gagan Narang finished fourth in the same event, while Ravikumar ended fifth.
Narang shot 626.2 in the qualification to create Commonwealth record. Sidhu was strong through the day, topping qualification with a high score of 386, her best in international competition since the 387 she shot at the Asian Championship in Delhi two years ago.
In the final, Sidhu opened up a gap of over two points after the first five shot series itself over her nearest rival and led throughout, nailing the title with a perfect 10.9 in the 23rd and penultimate shot.
Elena Galiabovitch of Australia won the silver medal with a score of 238.2 to Heena`s 240.8 while Kristy Gillman, also from the host country, won Bronze with 213.7.
India`s Harveen Srao finished fourth in the final with a score of 194.1 while the third Indian, Shri Nivetha Paramanantham was the fourth finalist to be eliminated.
She finished fifth with a finals score of 174.5 In the men`s 10m air rifle, Narang, first shattered the Commonwealth qualification record to top qualification with a score of 626.2.
Two other Indians, Ravi Kumar, in second with 625, and Deepak Kumar, in fifth with 620.3, qualified for the eight-man final.
However, Australian teenager Alex Hoberg stole the show in the final, claiming gold with a score of 247.6 after the allotted 24 shots. His compatriot Jack Rossiter challenged him till the end to win Silver with 245.5.
The Indians finished third, fourth and fifth with Deepak claiming bronze with 224.2. Narang shot 203 to finish fourth while Ravi finished fifth with a final round score of 182.2 In the women`s Skeet, India`s Rashmmi Rathore made the six-woman final with a qualification round score of 65 out of 75. She eventually finished sixth.
Two other Indians, Maheshwari Chauhan and Sania Sheikh, shot 64 and 62 respectively to miss out on a shot at the medals.
2. Kidambi Srikanth rises to career best number 2 in latest badminton rankings.
Kidambi Srikanth’s record fourth Superseries title of the year at the French Open has propelled him to a career-high world No 2 spot in the latest badminton men’s singles rankings released on Thursday.
This is the highest ranking for an Indian male badminton player since the official Badminton World Federation ranking was introduced. Srikanth’s highest career ranking before this was world No 3, achieved in 2015.
The career-best spot is the latest in the illustrious achievements of the 24-year-old this year, which includes four Superseries titles. Last week, he had climbed up four spots to No 4 after his Denmark Open triumph.
The top spot in the men’s rankings continued to be held by Dane Viktor Axelsen, while Korea’s Son wan Ho moved down a spot to No 3 Lin Dan and Chen Long finish the top five.
3. India clinched whopping 16 medals including 4 gold in Commonwealth Shooting Championships.
Notably, on Sunday i.e on the sixth day, India`s Anish Bhanwala won a silver medal in the men`s 25 metre rapid fire pistol event, while Neeraj Kumar bagged a bronze. These two medals took India`s tally from rifle and pistol events to 16, including four gold.
India has won one gold and a silver medal in shotgun events. India had three representatives in the six-man rapid fire pistol final, with Olympian Gurpreet Singh qualifying along with Anish and Neeraj. Anish topped the qualification with a score of 577, while Neeraj was second with 575. Gurpreet qualified in fifth place with a score of 566.
Unfortunately, Gurpreet was first to be outclassed in the final, but Anish and Neeraj gave a comprehensive performance and hung on for the silver and bronze after Australian Sergei Evglevski made the gold medal beyond reach, pulling away from the field after the fourth five-shot series.
Neeraj won a fourth-place elimination shoot-off over England`s Sam Gowin to assure himself of a medal. He had to be content with bronze as Anish beat him 21-19 after the sixth series. Sergei ended with a score of 28 out of 40 to win gold, while Anish was two behind with 26.
On the other side, in the women`s rifle 3 positions, Scotland`s Seonaid Mcintosh won gold with a final round score of 459.9. England`s Katie Gleeson bagged silver and Singapore`s Martina Veloso won bronze. Gaayathri finished fourth, shooting 429.7, and was the best placed among the three Indian finalists.