World Cup Final: Sonam Maskar shoots down 10m rifle silver

Sonam Maskar knows that winning and losing a medal in her chosen sport of 10 metres air rifle comes down to fine margins. Sometimes mere decimal points decide the podium. After all, she missed out on participation in the Olympics trials in India by a slender margin of 0.3.

On Tuesday, the 22-year-old from Kolhapur held her nerves when she was in danger of slipping out of the podium places. Needing near perfect scores, Sonam hit 10.7 and 10.9 to win silver and open India’s account at the World Cup Final.

She scored 252.9 points to finish behind Paris Olympics gold medallist Yuting Huang. China’s Huang scored 254.5, which was a new world record in the final. She bettered her teammate Jiayu Han’s mark of 254.0. France’s Oceanne Muller won the bronze medal. The other Indian in the fray, Tilotama Sen, finished sixth.

“I was a little nervous but the only thing I was thinking of was to give it my all and thankfully it went well,” Sonam said.

When asked about the last two shots in the final, the final year B.Com student said: “Not for a moment did I think I will lose a medal but I knew it was a do or die situation for me where I have to do well.”

Sonam, who has been housed at the National Centre of Excellence for shooting in Delhi, started as a chess enthusiast but switched over to shooting. “I picked up chess first but I had no rating. I picked up shooting by chance as it was the only option for me in my junior college as I never wanted to go into a physical sport,” said Sonam, who won two silver medals at the Cairo World Cup early this year.

Others disappoint

In the men’s 10m air rifle final, Arjun Babuta, who was leading the field for most of the final, finished fifth. Babuta lost his lead to China’s Sheng Lihao after the 17th shot of the 24-shot final when he logged 10.1 to Lihao’s 10.6 and then was eliminated after registering 9.8. Lihao won gold followed by Hungary’s Istavan Peni and Czech Republic’s Jiri Privratsky.

In the women’s 10m air pistol final, Rhythm Sangwan, who topped the qualifications with 579 points, and Surbhi Rao, who qualified fourth with 574 points, finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

In the men’s 10m air pistol final, Arjun Singh Cheema was the first to be eliminated after totaling 109.9 points.