Arjun to renew chase of Sheng; Sandeep Singh returns after Paris

Arjun Babuta will renew his chase of China’s reigning Olympic champion and world record holder Sheng Lihao, while Sandeep Singh returns to the international fold after his Paris Olympics outing as India continues its quest for coveted World Cup medals at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup (Rifle/Pistol) in Munich on Thursday.

Arjun has been in four consecutive finals since the Paris Olympics last year where he finished fourth. Sheng won that one as well as the previous one at the Lima World Cup, where Arjun could finally crack a medal with a silver-winning performance, finishing just 0.1 behind the champion.

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Sheng has also won the ISSF World Cup Final event in New Delhi, where Arjun finished fifth, and in the year’s first World Cup in Buenos Aires, teammate Rudrankksh Patil took gold as Arjun had to again finish outside the medals in seventh.

Arjun’s Paris teammate Sandeep Singh has also made his way back into the team and will look to create an impact alongside Kiran Jadhav, who, after not being able to reach the finals of the men’s 3P event, will look to make amends.

In the women’s 3P event, all three Indian shooters are in good form — Sift Kaur Samra recently won gold in Argentina, while Shriyanaka reached the finals in Lima. Ashi Chouksey, the third Indian in contention, also performed well and narrowly missed the cut in Lima.

Varun finishes sixth

Late on day one, Varun Tomar, who had qualified for the men’s 10m air pistol final with a solid qualifying score of 585, giving him second spot on the board, could not recover from a slow start in the final and eventually finished sixth.

Varun exited at the 16-shot mark with a score of 160.3. China’s Hu Kai won a third consecutive World Cup gold with a score of 242.3.

Debutants Nishant Rawat (national record holder) and Aditya Malra shot 582 and 578 to finish 10th and 27th, respectively.

Elavenil Valarivan had earlier given India their first medal of the Munich World Cup, with a bronze in the women’s 10m air rifle competition.