Akhil Sheoran wins rifle 3-position bronze in World Cup Final

Akhil Sheoran clinches third place in rifle 3-position event at World Cup Final, India shines with multiple finalists.

Akhil Sheoran spectacularly rose to third place in the rifle 3-position event in the World Cup Final at the Dr. Karni Singh range in Tughlakabad on Wednesday.

It was the second medal for the host after the silver on the opening day by Sonam Maskar. Incidentally, both Akhil and Sonam were two of the four shooters who had got direct entry into the prestigious championship.

The 29-year-old Akhil finished behind two of the finest rifle shooters in the world, Istvan Peni of Hungary and Jiri Privratsky of the Czech Republic after having bridged the gap to 0.6 points before the last shot. He was placed fifth last year in the championship in Doha.

Olympian Chain Singh also made the final with a score of 590 but finished seventh.

World record holder Rhythm Sangwan gave herself a chance for a medal in sports pistol, but lost a shoot-off against Camille Jedrejewski of France and Feng Sixuan of China, after being tied on 27, and placed fourth.

Simranpreet Kaur Brar also made the final in which she shot three rounds of perfect-5, but erred in the shoot-off, losing by one point to the eventual gold medallist Josefin Eder of Germany.

The men’s 25-metre rapid fire pistol shooters, Vijayveer Sidhu (581) and Anish Bhanwala (580) missed the final narrowly.