OSIJEK (Croatia): Continuing their impressive run, the Indian duo of Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker clinched the silver medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team event at the ISSF Shooting World Cup on Saturday.
Having won five golds in the previous editions, it was the duo’s sixth 10m air pistol mixed World Cup medal on the trot.
The Indian duo fought hard, clawing back from 6-12 to level the match at 12-12, before losing the last two series to go down 12-16 to Russia’s Vitalina Batsarashkina and Artem Chernousov.
Representing the other Indian team in the same event, Yashaswini Singh Deswal and Abhishek Verma missed out on a bronze medal.
Deswal and Verma, who qualified in the third place, were completely outplayed by Iran’s Golnoush Sebghatollahi and Javad Foroughi, losing 7-17 in the bronze play-off.
Bhaker and Chaudhary had topped the field in the first qualifying round shooting 587 out of 600 after 60 shots (30 shots each team member) while Verma and Deswal shot a combined 577, to finish fourth out of 32 teams.
Verma and Deswal then came in a point behind their compatriots with 386 in the second qualifying round.
Rio Olympic silver medallist Batsarashkina and world championship gold medallist in the discipline Chernousov, had earlier topped the second qualification round.
It was a bad day in the office for the Indian rifle shooters, competing in the 10m air mixed event.
Both teams failed to reach the final.
The pairing of Elavenil Valarivan and Divyansh Singh Panwar managed to reach the second qualification round, finishing sixth with a total of 416.1.
The duo of Anjum Moudgil and Deepak Kumar failed to clear the first qualifying round.
They finished a disappointing 15th with a total 624.6.
Chaudhary and Bhaker’s silver takes India’s medal count to three.
Both shooters have already won a bronze each.
While Chaudhary had picked a bronze medal in men’s 10m air pistol on the opening day, Bhaker alongside Deswal and Rahi Sarnobat had won the bronze in the 10m air pistol women’s team event.
Russia top the table currently with three gold medals for a total of seven medals.
The event is Indian shooting team’s final competitive outing before the Tokyo Olympics.