ISSF Munich World Cup: It’s a 1-2 for Suruchi, Esha

PUNE: It was a day of destiny for Indian shooters as they won two medals and lost a probable chance at the ISSF Munich World Cup on Friday. Suruchi Singh started her international season with a bang with gold in the women’s 10m air pistol, while Esha took silver, to win her second medal of the tournament.Suruchi scored 242.1, while Esha shot 241.2 in the final. Burgaria’s Miroslava Mincheva won bronze with 220.2. Both Esha and Suruchi were lucky to qualify for the final. In the final, the Indians got off to an average start, lying at fourth and fifth positions after the first series of five shots.It was Suruchi, who shifted gears first with some 10.5s and a 10.8 in the second and third series. Esha followed with 10.6s but also hit some 9s, however, they didn’t affect her much as her opponents too hit low scores in those series. Esha pushed Celine Goberville of France, a London Games silver medallist, to climb up from fourth to third. Esha also tackled Miroslava to confirm her silver, while Suruchi dealt with Korea’s Gaeun Choo, who had been leading the final since the first shot. Suruchi was behind Choo till the 20th shot, but the Korean shot consecutive 9s in the next two shots, while the Haryana girl shot 10.6 and 10 to go first. Meanwhile in the men’s 50m rifle 3 position event, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar was disqualified from participating in the final after scoring 592 in the qualification. Tomar was disqualified after his rifle failed the equipment check. In the men’s 25m rapid fire event, Anish Bhanwal, Udayveer Sidhu and Suraj Sharma failed to qualify.