India’s Arjun Babuta and Paarth Makhija qualified for the finals of the Men 10m Air Rifle on the opening day of the ISSF World Cup in Changwon, Korea.
Arjun scored an impressive 630.5 in the qualification to finish second while Paarth finished fifth with 628.4.
The third Indian shooter Shahu Tushar Mane shot 624.4 to finish 30th in a strong filed of 53 shooters.
Sergey Richter of Isreal topped the chart with a score of 631.6.
Shooters from Australia, Austria, Korea, Thailand and the USA claimed the other five qualifying spots, prominent among them being Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Lucas Kozeniesky of USA.
The finals of the Men’s 10m Air Rifle will be held on Monday.
The Indian shooters faced disappointment in the Women 10m Air Rifle with none making the grade. Mehuli Ghosh came closest with a score of 628.7 to finish 11th in the field. She lost out on a qualifying spot by the narrowset possible margin of 0.1 point. Given that among the top finishers were two shooters not competing for medals, the 10th placed Hungarian Eszter Meszaros claimed the eighth and final qualifying spot with a score of 628.8.
Senior debutant Ramita shot 627.4 to finish 17th, while former World No.1 and Tokyo Olympian Elavenil Valarivan finished 24th with a score 626.3.
Meanwhile, Indian shooters participating in the trap and air pistol events will kick-off their campaigns on Monday.
India has fielded a 32-member strong contingent in the Changwon World Cup.