Lajja, Anjum Narrowly Miss Finals at Munich Shooting World Cup

New Delhi, May 24, 2016: AnjumMoudgil and LajjaGauswami of India shot gallantly in what is arguably the most grueling shooting event in the world- the Rifle 3 Positions,to miss out on making the final round of an International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup by the narrowest of margins. Anjum and Lajja competingon day fourof competitions at Munich’s Olympic Shooting Centre, in the Women’s section of the event where shooters successively shoot two rounds of 10 shots each in the kneeling, prone and standing positions, shot identical scores of 582 in their qualification round to eventually finish on 15th and 17th spots respectively. It was a closely fought qualification round where four out of the eight women who made it to the finals had scores of 583, just one point ahead of the Indian pair.

Anjum can take heart from the fact that in only her second year as a member of the senior India team, she has registered her best performance in a World Cup. Not only is this her best finish but also her highest score in a World Cup.SnjezanaPejcic of Croatia won the Gold in the event, while AnzelaVoronova of Estonia won the Silver and Petra Zublasing of Italy bagged the Bronze medal.

In the Men’s 10M Air Pistol, the other medal event of the day, India’s Jitu Rai, while finishing 8th in his qualification relay, eventually ended in 22nd place with a score of 579. Gurpreet Singh shot 578 to finish in 32nd spot. Omkar Singh, the other Indian in the fray, shot 574 to finish 52nd. Prakash Nanjappa who shot in the Minimum Qualification Score (MQS) section shot a score of 576.OlehOmelchuk of Ukraine won the Gold in the event. The Silver went to Ismail Keles of Turkey and Xuan Vinh Hoang of Vietnam bagged the Bronze.

Day five will also see two medal events in the form of the Women’s 10M Air Pistol and the Men’s 50M Rifle 3 Positions finals.