Day 4 of IISF World Cup to see Gagan Narang shooting for last time

PTI

New Delhi: Day four of the fifth and final stage of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol series, being held in Gabala, Azerbaijan, will see Olympic medalist Gagan Narang of India among others lining up for the Men's 50m Rifle Prone event, for one final time on the World Cup stage.

Both Gagan and compatriot Sanjeev Rajput sailed through their elimination rounds on day three and will shoot in the qualification round on Sunday.

The Final of the event is also slated for the same day.

Sanjeev Rajput today shot a score of 623.5 in his elimination round while Gagan shot 622.2 to finish 10th and 15th respectively in their elimination relay.

Gagan has been in pretty good form in recent times after a string of good performances in international meets in Europe.

He backed that up with a high score of 628.8 in the MQS section of the Men's 10m Air Rifle event in Gabala, which was the second best score of the day, second only to Hungary's Istvan Peni who shot 629 to qualify in top spot for the finals and win an eventual Bronze medal.

In the other event of the day, the Men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol, India's Neeraj Kumar shot a score of 573 to finish in 25th place.

A total of 430 athletes from 45 countries are competing for medals at Gabala World Cup which will the last chance for Rifle and Pistol shooters to qualify for the year end showpiece- the ISSF World Cup Finals (WCF), which has the eight best shooters of the world in each Olympic discipline along with reigning Olympic and World Championship medalists and wild-cards squaring-off with each other.