Indian shooters Shri Nivetha, Esha Singh and Ruchita Vinerkar win gold at ISSF World Cup in Cairo

ISSF World Cup gold medal-winning team of Shooting, ISSF World Cup, Shri Nivetha, Esha Singh and Ruchita Vinerkar. (Source: Twitter)

The Indian shooting trio of Shri Nivetha, Esha Singh and Ruchita Vinerkar combined to win the gold medal in the women’s 10m air pistol team event of the ISSF World Cup in Cairo. The Indians shot 16 in the gold medal contest to finish on the podium for the country's third medal, and second gold, in the year’s first World Cup on Wednesday (March 3) night. India lead the standings with three medals – two gold and a silver.

Germany’s Andrea Katharina Heckner, Sandra Reitz and Carina Wimmer settled for the silver medal after managing 6 in the fight for the top prize. The three Indian women had topped the qualification stage 2 with a total score of 574 on their way to the gold medal match.

Behind the Indians were Heckner, Reitz and Wimmer, with 571. Esha, Shri Nivetha and Ruchita had also topped qualification stage 1 with a total score of 856.

Earlier in the day, Olympian Saurabh Chaudhary, Gaurav Rana and Uchaganve Kedarling Balakrishna missed out on a bronze medal in the men’s 10m air pistol team competition. In the bronze medal match, the Indian pistol team finished with a total of 6 to finish at fourth place, behind Italy’s Torracchi Alessio, Monna Paolo and Tesconi Luca, who aggregated 16.

In the Qualification Stage 2, the Indians totalled 581, ahead of their Italian counterparts (577). In the first qualification, the Indians aggregated 765.

FOR WOMEN'S TEAM

Indian trio of Nivetha P, @singhesha10 & Ruchita Vinerkar wins GOLD medal in 10m Air Pistol team event after defeating Team (16-6) at the ongoing @ISSF_Shooting World Cup, Cairo

Heartiest congratulations
Good going Girls pic.twitter.com/RLymeeT7Yw — SAI Media (@Media_SAI) March 3, 2022

Before that, the Indian team of Rudrankkash Balasaheb Patil, Divyansh Singh Panwar and Srinjoy Dutta failed to secure a place in the bronze medal contest by a point in the men’s 10m air rifle team event. The Indian men’s rifle team aggregated 624.1, only a point less than Czech Republic's Ales Entrichel, Jiri Privratsky and Filip Nepejchel’s total score of 624.2.

The Czechs went on to win the bronze medal ahead of Austria. The Indian team of Shreya Agarwal, Ayushi Gupta and Rajshree Sancheti finished seventh in the qualification stage 2 of women's 10m air rifle team event with a total score of 625.0.

Eight other countries besides India have claimed the 10 gold medals distributed so far, but none have more than one yet. Germany and Italy are joint second on the table with one gold, two silver and one bronze medal each. A total of 17 countries have won medals so far.

Over 500 athletes from 60 nations are taking part in the World Cup which has 20 medal sets on offer. There are no finals scheduled on Thursday.