Rudrankksh strikes gold in 10m air rifle at ISSF World Cup

The young Indian champ was constantly hunted down by the great and in-form Hungarian rifle shooter Istvan Peni, fresh from a men's 3P gold a couple of days back, but pulled out the big shots when it mattered in a sharp performance.

The host country's Marcelo Julian Gutierezz won a popular bronze, bowing out after the 22nd shot of the 24-shot eight-man final, with his score on 230.1 at that stage, 0.4 behind Peni and 1.6 behind leader Patil.

With this India now jointly lead the medal standings along with China, both nations picking up identical two gold, one silver, one bronze tallies till now. Eight more finals are yet to be played. USA have also won two golds and lie third while Hungary have won the other gold.

The men's air rifle qualifications had two relays and Indians topped both of them with Arjun Babuta's sizzling 634.5 over his 60 shots, in the first, the best of the lot. Rudrankksh followed with an equally impressive 633.7, to top the second and finish second overall. The third Indian in the medal hunt, Hriday Hazarika, shot 624.6 in the second relay, to finish in 22nd spot overall.

Among others to make the final eight besides Peni and Gutierezz, were former European junior champion Ilia Marsov (neutral athlete) and young Chinese talent Wang Honghao.

Patil however, made his intentions clear with a 10.7 to start the final and hit the 9-ring only once, that too for his 19th shot by which time gold was almost certain.

In between he set the Tiro Federal Argentino de Buenos Aires shooting range on fire with eight shots of 10.5 or above and three perfect 10.9s to put lots of icing on the cake.

To his credit, he shrugged off the 19th effortlessly, closing with scores of 10.2, 10.8, 10.5, 10.4 and 10.8 for a special victory. At one point Peni caught up at the 13th shot but Patil fired a 10.9 in his 14th to stretch the lead over a point once again.

Monday will be the women's air rifle qualifications followed by the final at 10 pm IST. Day five will also see the first day of the women's Trap and men's rapid-fire pistol competitions get underway.