ISSF Junior World Championship: India clinches five more gold medals

New Delhi: Divanshi and Mukesh Nelavalli clinched gold medals in their respective women’s and men’s 25m pistol as India added another five gold medals on day four of the ISSF Junior World Championship in Lima, Peru.

The added haul took India’s overall tally to 14 with the country’s shooters claiming 10 gold, one silver and three bronze medals so far in the competition. USA (10) and Italy (8) are placed second and third respectively. Divanshi shot a score of 35 to pip Italian Cristina Magnani by two points in the final as France’s Heloise Fourre was third.

Divanshi bagged another gold on the fourth day as she teamed up with Tejaswini and Vibhuti Bhatia to win the junior women’s 25m pistol team with a combined tally of 1711 ahead of Czechia and Germany. Divanshi had a tough road to winning the gold medal after missing seven of her first 15 targets in the final, which put her in sixth position initially.

However, Divanshi staged a fine recovery to hit 16 of her next 20 to move up to second with three more series of five shots remaining in the 10-series final.

The silver winning Magnani, who had led from the beginning, found herself tied with Divanshi on 31-hits after the ninth series as the Indian nailed a four when it mattered most, while the Italian missed three. France’s Heloise Fourre, who had piped Divanshi to second after the eighth series, had to settle for bronze after missing three shots in the ninth series.