Sonam Maskar wins silver on ISSF World Cup debut

Cairo: Debutant Sonam Maskar bagged a silver medal for India in the women’s 10m air rifle event of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup here.

Competing in her maiden World Cup, Sonam shot 252.1 in the eight-woman final, finishing 0.9 behind Germany’s Anna Janssen at the Egypt International Olympic City Shooting range late on Sunday. Poland’s Aneta Stankiewicz took home the bronze.

Earlier, Divyasnsh Singh Panwar had struck gold in the men’s event with a world record score in the final.

India is now firmly on the top of the season-opening World Cup stage with two gold and three silver medals in their kitty after three days of competition.

Two Indians, Sonam and Nancy had made the final after shooting scores of 632.7 and 633.1 to finish the 60-shot qualification round in fifth and fourth spots respectively.

Sonam, however, was strongest off the blocks in the 24-shot final, her 53.0 in the first five-shot series giving her the early lead.

It was quite an unprecedented final, with the scores huddled so close to each other that at the end of 10 shots, the difference between the leader Sonam and Nancy, who was placed eighth at that stage, was just 0.8.

Anna took over the lead from Sonam after the 14th shot as, despite a 10.9 again from Sonam on the 13th, Anna’s consistent high 10s bore fruit.

At one stage it did look that it would be a double podium for India, but Poland’s Stankiewicz pipped Nancy for bronze, while Sonam could not catch up with the experienced Janssen.