India’s Rudrankksh Patil carried forward his good form from the ISSF Junior World Cup to make it through to the last-eight stage of Men’s 10m Air Rifle at the World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The final stages are set for Sunday. India has fielded a 12-member rifle squad only in this World Cup.
Rudrankksh, who emerged triumphant in the same event at the Junior World Cup held three weeks ago, shot 628.8 to finish fourth in the 78-strong qualification field. Lazar Kovacevic of Serbia shot the best qualification score of 630.6.
Among the other Indians in the field, Tokyo Olympian Deepak Kumar shot 626.8 to finish 15th, Paarth Makhija shot 624.7 for a 26th place finish while Deaflympics champion Dhanush Srikanth ended 35th after having shot a score of 623.8.
Meanwhile in the Women 10m Air Rifle, Tokyo Olympian Elavenil Valarivan was India best finisher with 629.1, followed by Shreya Agrawal with 627.0 and Ramita with 626.2. None of the women made it to the next stage. The top qualification scorer was Eszter Mezaros of Hungary with 633.6.