Shooter Pooja misses out on World Cup medal

Bangkok, March 3: India’s shooter Pooja Ghatkar narrowly missed out on a medal and finished fourth on day one of the Shooting World Cup for rifle and pistol, which got underway here on Thursday.

Pooja ended her qualifying round of 40 shots each in a creditable third position behind China’s Olympic and world champion Yi Siling and Singapore’s HO Xiu Yi, shooting a score of 416.7.

Yi finished on top with a score of 420.2 while Ho Xiu Yi logged 418.5. In the eight-women final however Pooja was eliminated in fourth place with a score of 164.

Yi won the gold shooting 207.7 while Austria’s Olivia Hofmann bagged silver with a final round score of 184.6.

Singaporean star Jasmine pipped Pooja to the bronze medal with a final round score of 184.6.

Pooja’s teammates Ayonika Paul and Apoorvi Chandela finished 17th and 18th with scores of 413.8 and 413.6 respectively in their qualification rounds.

In the other event decided on the day, all three Indians in the Men’s 10 metres air rifle namely former Olympic Champion Abhinav Bindra, Olympic bronze medallist Gagan Narang and Chain Singh, failed to qualify for the final round.

Chain finished 10th in qualifying with a score of 626.3, while Abhinav shot 622.7 to finish in 18th position. Gagan shot 617.6 to end his day in the 33rd position.