Divyansh Singh Panwar bounced back from a below-par effort to shoot the gold in men’s air rifle with a score of 252.8, pipping qualification topper Ding Jiawei of China by 1.4 point, in the second match of the H&N Cup international shooting competition on Saturday.
Shooting with his regular pellets, Divyansh was able to get back on track after being placed third in qualification with 632.3.
Coach Deepak Dubey revealed that Divyansh had used a new set of pellets selected in Europe, and the score had dipped to 628.4 as he needed to get used to them. Once he returned to the regular pellets for the second competition, Divyansh was back to his best form. He had won two gold medals earlier in Austria.
The Asian Games silver medallist, Deepak Kumar, however, was not able to step it up and was 28th with a score of 628.5.
Apurvi skips event
In women’s air rifle, Shriyanka Sadangi shot 627.7 and was placed 33rd as the cut-off for the final was an intimidatingly high 631.3. Apurvi Chandela, who had won the earlier competition, opted to skip the second in consultation with coach Rakesh Manpat. Apurvi had also bagged two gold in Austria.
In women’s air pistol, Shweta Singh shot 578 and missed the final by one point. In men’s air pistol, Shahzar Rizvi shot 574 for the 48th spot (cut-off for final: 581).
Both Divyansh and Deepak had nominated their European performances as their scores for the selection process for the National team, and opted to skip the ongoing National selection trials in Thiruvananthapuram, in consultation with the National federation apart from the Sports Authority of India (SAI).
The results:
Men: Air rifle: 1. Divyansh Singh Panwar 252.8 (632.3); 2. Ding Jiawei (Chn) 251.4 (633.1); 3. Peter Sidi 230.1 (631.5); 28. Deepak Kumar 628.5.
