After equaling World Record in qualifying, Anjum Moudgil fizzles in final at ISSF World Cup

Six of the eight shooters who qualified for the final had their lowest scoring series as the standing series and Anjum's score of 386 in qualification meant she qualified in sixth spot.

Anjum Mougil after winning a medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast

The shot of 8.5 cost Anjum Moudgil a medal in the 50m Rifle 3 Position event at the ISSF World Cup. (PTI File photo)

It was Anjum Moudgil’s second shot in the second elimination series of the standing position and with a score of 8.5, the Chandigarh shooter, placed third before the start of the series, slipped to seventh spot in the final of the women’s 50m Rifle 3 Position event at the ISSF World Cup in Munich.

Moudgil, who had shot just one shot of more than 10 in the six prior to that, then shot three scores of more than 10 to go into the single shot elimination in fourth spot. But her first shot of 9.2 meant that the 24-year-old bowed out of the competition.

Before the standing series in the final, Moudgil, who shot a score of 1177 in the qualification round, had ended the kneeling and prone series in second spot. The field included Rio Olympics silver medallist Binbin Zhang (bronze) and three-time World Cup medallist Chen Dongqi (silver), both from China.

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Six of the eight shooters who qualified for the final had their lowest scoring series as the standing series and Anjum’s score of 386 in qualification meant she qualified in sixth spot.

On Saturday, when Moudgil had shot a world record qualifying score of 1180 in the elimination relay, her score of 390 was her lowest in the standing series. Sunday’s gold medallist Elaheh Ahmadi of Iran shot the best score of 396 in the standing series in qualification but had the lowest score of 387 in the kneeling position series.

India’s chief rifle coach Deepali Deshpande believes Sunday’s final would prepare Moudgil ahead of the Asian Games and the world cups offering quota places for the Tokyo Olympics.

“Anjum is the juniormost in this event for India and would take a lot of confidence. Six of the eight finalists here will also compete at the Asian Games and shooting in such pressure situations will prepare Anjum well,” shared Deshpande.

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Anish, Gurpreet disappoint
In the men’s Rapid Fire Pistol event, teenage sensation Anish Bhanwala and Olympian Gurpreet Singh shot identical scores of 571 out of 600 in qualifying to fall well short of the top six.

The third Indian in the fray, Neeraj Kumar, shot an even lower score of 549. India, who are yet to win a medal in this World Cup, will have a last chance to make amends on Monday, the concluding day of the event. India will fancy their chances in the two events of the day, 10m Air Rifle Mixed team and the 10m Air Pistol Mixed team.

Nitin Sharma

Nitin Sharma is an Assistant Editor with the sports team of The Indian Express. Based out of Chandigarh, Nitin works with the print sports desk while also breaking news stories for the online sports team. A Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award recipient for the year 2017 for his story ‘Harmans of Moga’, Nitin has also been a two-time recipient of the UNFPA-supported Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity for the years 2022 and 2023 respectively. Nitin mainly covers Olympics sports disciplines with his main interests in shooting, boxing, wrestling, athletics and much more. The last 17 years with The Indian Express has seen him unearthing stories across India from as far as Andaman and Nicobar to the North East. Nitin also covers cricket apart from women’s cricket with a keen interest. Nitin has covered events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2017 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships. An alumnus of School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, from where he completed his Masters in Mass Communications degree, Nitin has been an avid quizzer too. A Guru Nanak Dev University Colour holder, Nitin’s interest in quizzing began in the town of Talwara Township, a small town near the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border. When not reporting, Nitin's interests lie in discovering new treks in the mountains or spending time near the river Beas at his hometown. ... Read More