New Delhi
Indian shooters Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Sift Kaur Samra faced disappointment at the World University Shooting Championship on Monday, while little-known Smit Rameshbhai Moradiya claimed silver in the men’s 10m air rifle event after a thrilling contest for gold.
Rameshbhai, from Gujarat, narrowly missed out on the gold, scoring 252.1 in the final, just 0.1 point behind Czech Republic’s Jiri Privratsky, who took the top spot with 252.2. Privratsky, the 23-year-old Olympian, had already claimed the men’s 50m rifle three-positions gold the day before.
In contrast, Tomar, an Olympian, finished fifth with 187.7 points, while Umamahesh Maddineni, another Indian competitor, placed fourth with 208.8. Rameshbhai had earlier qualified for the final with a score of 630.0, securing second place.
Samra, a key member of India’s Paris 2024 team, also disappointed in the women’s 50m rifle three-position event, finishing fourth with 439.6. The gold went to France’s Agathe Girard (462.3), with Poland’s Julia Piotrowska and Germany’s Anna Janssen taking silver and bronze.
India has now won nine medals in the championship, including a gold from the 10m air pistol mixed team event featuring Palak Gulia and Amit Sharma. The championship, which sees 220 shooters from 23 countries, is being held at Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies.
