The Indian duo of Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary was beaten to the gold in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team by the Russian pair of Rio Olympic silver medallist Vitalina Batsarashkina and World Championship gold medallist Artem Chernousov 16-12 in the ongoing ISSF World Cup in Osijek, Croatia.
Manu and Saurabh, who have won a string of gold medals in the World Cups, fought hard, levelling at 6-6 and then fighting back from 6-12 to level it back at 12-12, but that was not enough on the day to ward off the Russian pair.
The second Indian team of Yashaswini Deswal and Abhishek Verma lost the bronze to the Iranian team of Javad Foroughi and Golnoush Sebghatollahi 17-7.
In 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team, Elavenil Valarivan and Divyansh Singh Panwar, who had won the gold in the Delhi ISSF World Cup in March, were eliminated in the second stage in 6th place. The pair shot 416.1 and missed the chance to fight for a medal by 1.6 points. Even in the first stage of qualification, the Indian team came 5th.
The other Indian team of Anjum Moudgil and Deepak Kumar was placed 15th with 624.6 in the first stage of qualification.
The Results:
10m Air Pistol Mixed Team: 1. Russia (Vitalina Batsarashkina, Artem Chernousov) 16 (390) 586; 2. India (Manu Bhaker, Saurabh Chaudhary) 12 (387) 587; 3. Iran 17 (385) 583; 4. India-A (Yashaswini Deswal, Abhishek Verma) 7 (386) 577.
10m Air Rifle Mixed Team: 1. Hungary (Eszter Meszaros, Istvan Peni) 17 (420.1) 626.1; 2. Russia 13 (419.1) 628.7; 3. Russia-1 17 (418.8) 630.4; 4. US 11 (417.7) 626.8; 6. India-2 (Elavenil Valarivan, Divynsh Singh Panar 416.1 (626.6); 15. India-1 (Anjum Moudgil, Deepak Kumar) 624.6.