ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Cup 2023 Bhopal: Varun Tomar and Rhythm Sangwan bag 10m air pistol mixed team silver

The Indian shooting pair of Varun Tomar and Rhythm Sangwan settled for the silver medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team event while Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil and Narmada Nithin secured the 10m air rifle mixed team bronze at the ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Cup 2023 in Bhopal on Thursday.

With the two medals on the second day, India’s overall tally rose to four medals at the ISSF World Cup, which is currently underway in Madhya Pradesh.

Varun Tomar and Rhythm Sangwan lost to China’s Qian Wei and Jinyao Liu 17-11 in the gold medal match to finish second on the podium. Another Chinese pair of Xue Li and Pengqi Hu won the bronze medal.

Earlier, in the qualification round, Varun Tomar (293 points) and Rhythm Sangwan (288 points) finished second with a total of 581 points to make the cut for the gold medal match.

The other Indian pair of Divya Thadigol and Sarabjot Singh failed to progress beyond the qualification round after finishing fifth with 574 points.

Meanwhile, the pair of Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil and Narmada Nithin defeated China’s Qiongyue Zhang and Haonan Yu 16-8 in the bronze medal match to make the podium in the 10m air rifle mixed team competition.

The gold went to China’s Yuting Huang and Lihao Sheng while Hungary’s Eszter Denes and Istvan Peni took the silver.

Earlier, in the 10m air pistol mixed team qualification round Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil and Narmada Nithin claimed the third spot with 632 points to seal a spot in the bronze medal match.

The other Indian pair of Hriday Hazarika and Tilottama Sen finished a disappointing ninth in the qualifiers with 628 points.

On Wednesday, Sarabjot Singh had clinched the gold medal while Varun Tomar finished with bronze in the men's 10m air pistol event to open India’s medals tally.

Meanwhile, on Friday, five Indian men’s shooters - Divyansh Singh Panwar, Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil, Arjun Babuta, Hriday Hazarika and Shahu Tushar Mane - will be in action in the 10m air rifle event.

Ramita, Nancy, Tilottama Sen, Narmada Nithin and Elavenil Valarivan will be in action in the women’s 10m air rifle event.