Paris Olympians Sift Kaur Samra and Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar came agonizingly close to securing medals at the World University Shooting Championship in New Delhi, but ultimately fell short in their respective events.
In the Women’s 50m Rifle Three Positions, Asian Games gold medalist Sift Kaur Samra displayed remarkable resilience but narrowly missed out on a podium finish. Despite qualifying for the final with a score of 587, Sift, who had been in contention for a medal throughout, finished in fourth place with a score of 439.6 in the final. The competition was fierce, and a late surge from her rivals proved decisive for the 24-year-old.
Sift’s teammate, Manini Kaushik, also registered a qualification score of 587, but unfortunately missed out on the final after a tie-breaker placed her just outside the top eight. The third Indian in the event, Vanshika Shahi, finished in 27th place with 581. Despite the individual disappointments, Sift, Manini, and Vanshika Shahi combined to win the silver in the team event with a score of 1755, finishing just one point behind the Czech Republic (1756) and edging out Germany (1754) for second place.
In the individual rankings, France’s Gathe Girard clinched the gold with a score of 462.3 (590), while Poland’s Julia Piotrowska won the silver with 462.0 (591). Germany’s Anna Janssen secured the bronze with a score of 450.2 (589).
Meanwhile, in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle, 23-year-old Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar, who had won silver in the 50m Rifle Three Positions earlier in the competition, was pushed out of the medals and had to settle for fifth place with a score of 187.7 (628.3). His teammate Umamahesh Maddineni finished just ahead in fourth place with a score of 208.8 (629.8).
A surprising performance came from lesser-known teammate Smit Moradiya, who won the silver with a score of 252.1 (630.0), narrowly missing out on gold by just 0.1 point. Jiri Privratsky of the Czech Republic took the gold with a stunning final score of 252.2, after an amazing qualification of 637.7, just 0.2 points shy of the World Record. It was the second individual gold for the 25-year-old Jiri, who had dominated in the Men’s 50m Rifle Three Positions earlier in the competition.
In the Men’s 10m Air Rifle Team, Aishwarya, Umamahesh, and Smit Moradiya secured gold for India with a score of 1888.1, while Korea won the silver with 1874.7, and Hungary took the bronze with 1866.2.