New Delhi: The call to take the 41st shot in the 50m 3 Positions rifle final was announced, and Akhil Sheoran lifted his weapon, waiting for the perfect moment to take the clutch shot. Placed fourth at that stage, Sheoran needed a good shot to close the gap on Hungary’s eventual winner Istvan Peni, 2023 Asian champion Konstantin Malinovskiy of Kazakhstan and Czech Republic’s Jiri Privratsky.
Peni fired first, a below par 9.5. Privratsky hit 10.5 and Malinovskiy 9.2. Shooters get 50 seconds to take a shot, and Sheoran was the last. Slowest to fire among the finalists, after 35 seconds, he however produced the best score of the round — 10.7.
Up in third place, the 29-year-old shot with composure, taking 30 seconds or more for each shot thereafter to win the bronze medal at the year-ending World Cup Final here on Wednesday. He had a score of 452.6. Peni, silver medallist in the 10m air rifle event on Tuesday, coasted to gold tallying 465.3 while Priratsky was second at 464.2. India’s Chain Singh finished seventh.
“The moment they announced that my best finish at the World Cup final was a fifth-place result (Doha, 2023), I realised I was a much better shooter than that. I was determined to improve on that at the very least,” he said.
“I collected my thoughts, identified a point on the ground to concentrate, and just went through my routines. I like to take my time to shoot. I want every shot to be a perfect shot.”
After a promising start to the year that saw him win bronze at the Cairo World Cup and the Asian Championships title in Jakarta, Sheoran met with an accident that derailed preparations for the four-stage Olympics selection trials (OST). What was more heartbreaking was that he had secured the quota for India at the 2023 World Championships in Baku, where he came third.
“It was tough to come to terms with. The accident left me with a chip fracture in my arm. I was not at my 100 percent during the OSTs,” he said. “It has been a topsy-turvy year for me; coming so close to Olympic qualification and then not being able to make it. But I wanted to put everything behind me and begin my preparations for LA 2028,” added Sheoran.
“The new Olympics cycle has just started and I feel this medal will give my preparations the right impetus. I want to push my limits in the four years leading up to Los Angeles, set bigger goals and win more tournaments.”
Sheoran shot 589 to qualify in sixth position for the eight-man final while Singh (590) was fourth. The two were sixth and seventh respectively at the end of the 15 Kneeling shots of the 45-shot final. Sheoran moved up to joint third after the Prone series. He made his move in his favourite Standing series, rising from mid-table to the top three.
“I was gunning for the second spot because Peni had gone too far ahead, but I’ll take this,” Sheoran said.
Hungary’s Peni, who won a gold and bronze when the World Cup Final was last held in India (2017), said of his start-to-finish show: “I have won quite a lot in India and this range somehow really suits me. I usually struggle in Kneeling series but I am very good at Prone. So, when I led after the kneeling round, I knew it was going to be a good match.”
Heartbreak for Rhythm
For the second day in succession, Rhythm Sangwan had a meltdown under pressure as she went from medal position to fourth in the 25m pistol final. The 20-year-old seemingly had everything going for her, from her form to the immense crowd support at her home range, but pitted against China’s Feng Sixuan for a third-place shoot-off, she could hit the target only once, losing 3-1.
Germany’s Josefin Eder, who had survived a sixth-place shoot-off with India’s Simranpreet Kaur Brar, recovered admirably to win gold with 36 hits while France’s Camille Jedrzejewski, who won silver at the Paris Olympics, followed her gold in the 10m pistol on Tuesday to take second and cap a memorable year.
No Indian could make the final in the men’s 25m pistol and women’s 50m 3P. China currently lead the medal tally with four gold and three bronze with Germany in second (1 gold, 2 silver) and France third (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze).