Anjum Moudgil bags rifle 3-position silver

Indian men’s rifle 3-position team also takes silver

Olympian Anjum Moudgil won the rifle 3-position silver, behind Rikke Maeng Ibsen of Denmark, in the shooting World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Friday.

The 29-year-old Anjum had shot 587 in qualification and followed that up with a 406.5 in the second stage that led to the medal round. Anjum was 4.9 point behind the Dane who went on prevail in the gold medal match 16-12.

It was the second individual silver medal in the event at the World Cup for Anjum, who had won silver in the World Championship in air rifle, after the one at World Cup in Guadalajara in 2018.

The Indian men’s rifle 3-position team of Swapnil Kussale, Deepak Kumar and Goldi Gurjar also bagged the silver as it got beaten 17-7 by Croatia, much in contrast to the close duel in the earlier two stages of qualification.

In the women’s rifle 3-position team event, Ashi Chouksey, Anjum and Ayushi Podder shot 867 in the second stage, and missed the chance for a medal by one point. It was a disappointing turn as the team had topped the first stage of qualification with 1316,

The Indian tally of a gold and three silver medals helped the team climb to the third spot on the medals table behind Korea and Serbia. Indeed, a commendable fare considering that the Indian team had restricted itself to the rifle events, not fielding any shooter in the pistol and shotgun.