Vijayveer Sidhu wins rapid fire pistol gold

Vijayveer Sidhu wins 25m rapid fire pistol gold, India leads in medals

Vijayveer Sidhu defeated Riccardo Mazzetti of Italy 29-28 for the 25m rapid fire pistol gold in the shooting World Cup in Buenos Aires on Tuesday.

The 22-year-old Vijayveer had overcome a slow start, when he had got only one point out of five in the first series in the final. With the gold medal at stake on the last series, both were on 25. Vijayveer shot four to the three by the Italian.

It was the fourth gold for India, which helped the team stay on top of the table ahead of China, which has three gold medals.

However, China beat India 17-9 in the mixed air rifle match to clinch the gold and jump to the top of the medals table. India stayed in the race with the addition of a silver through Arya Borse and Rudrankksh Patil.

The results: 10m air rifle: Mixed team: 1. China (Wang Zifei, Song Buhan) 17(631.4); 2. India (Arya Borse, Rudrankksh Patil) 9(630.5); 3. Argentina (Fernanda Russo, Marcelo Gutierrez) 17(629.8); India-2 (Narmada Nthin, Arjun Babuta) 13(629.6).

25m rapid fire pistol: Men: 1. Vijayveer Sidhu 29(579); 2. Riccardo Mazzetti (Ita) 28(578); 3. Yang Yuhao (Chn) 23(581); 10. Gurpreet Singh 575; 13. Anish Bhanwala 570.