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Journalism of Courage
There was some drama at the ISSF Shooting World Cup in Lima, Peru as the former 10m air rifle world champion Rudrankksh Patil withdrew from the final mid-way, which saw him end in 8th spot in the men’s 10m air rifle event where compatriot Arjun Babuta ended second behind China’s Sheng Lihao by the narrowest 0.1 margin.
Rudrankksh was dejected that the score from his 11th shot in the final was disallowed by the jury. Patil had shot a 10.4 with his 11th shot which saw him go into fourth spot. But right after all the eights shooters had taken their 11th shot, the jury huddled at their table and had a prolonged discussion, which held up the 10m air rifle final.
Eventually they came to the conclusion that Rudrankksh had shot before the chief range officer had given the command to do so. He was consequently docked the shot, and got no score for the 11th pull of the trigger. This meant, from 4th position, he slumped to last place in the 8-man final with a score of 104.8, which was 8 points behind the shooter in 7th position, Kissell of USA.
After the jury’s decision, while the rest of the shooters took their 12th shot, Rudrankksh was seen inserting his safety flag inside the rifle and opted not to take the 12th shot.
Rudrankksh’s disappointment was understandable: after 10 shots in the final, the former world champion was in joint fourth place in the standings along with Lihao, who is the reigning Olympic champion and the Olympic and world record holder. Both shooters had a score of 104.8 while Babuta was third with a score of 105.4. But the 11th shot had seem him surge ahead of the eventual winner.
At the year’s first ISSF World Cup in Buenos Aires, Rudrankksh had won gold in the men’s 10m air rifle and a silver in the mixed 10m air rifle shooting event with Arya Borse.
