India starts junior world cup with shooting glory

India opened its campaign at the ISSF Junior World Cup on a high note, with the women’s team sweeping the podium in the 50m rifle prone event, while the men claimed a silver and bronze at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range here on Thursday.

Continuing her golden run from the Asian Championships in Kazakhstan, 18-year-old Anushka Thokur topped the women’s leaderboard with a score of 621.6, clinching the gold. Fellow teenager Anshika finished with 619.2 to claim silver, and 20-year-old Aadhya Agrawal completed the podium with a score of 615.9 in the non-Olympic discipline. Their clean sweep highlighted the depth of talent in India’s junior women shooters.

On the men’s side, Deependra Singh Shekhawat and Rohit Kanyan earned their first international medals. Deependra, who had also competed at the Asian Championships in the men’s 50m rifle 3-positions, shot an aggregate of 617.9 over six rounds to take silver. Rohit narrowly edged past competitors to secure bronze with 616.3 points. The gold was claimed by Individual Neutral Athlete Kamil Nuriakhmetov, who scored 618.9 in the 11-shooter field.

Other Indian contenders Nitin Waghmare, Kushagra Singh, and Kunal Sharma finished fifth, eighth, and eleventh respectively. Nitin had previously won bronze at the Asian Championships, showing India’s consistent strength in the event.

The Junior World Cup will continue with Olympic discipline events from Friday, starting with the men’s and women’s 10m air pistol competitions. With such a strong start, India’s young shooters look set to maintain momentum and add more medals to their tally in the coming days.