Sports Shorts: Apurvi wins year's second women's 10m Air Rifle WC gold

India's Apurvi Chandela continued her golden run of form, winning the women's 10m Air Rifle after a closely-fought contest on Sunday at the year's third International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol stage in Munich, Germany.

The shooter from Jaipur shot a score of 251 in the final to outshine Wang Luyao of China, who shot 250.8, to settle for the silver medal. Another Chinese shooter, Xu Hong, finished third with a score of 229.4 in the final.

It was a neck-and-neck battle between Apurvi and Wang, where the Indian was just 0.1 ahead as she shot a 10.4 to Wang's 10.3 to clinch the issue.

This was Apurvi's second ISSF World Cup gold of the year followed by a world record score in New Delhi in February.

In the second Beijing leg she had finished just outside the medal bracket -- at fourth place.

This was also Apurvi's career's fourth ISSF medal.

Another Indian in the fray today, Elavenil Valarivan also made it to the finals along with teammate Apurvi but narrowly missed out on a medal, finishing fourth. She lost to eventual bronze medallist Xu Hong of China by just 0.1 points.

After 20 shots in the 24-shot final, Xu edged out Elavenil 208.4 to 208.3.

Earlier, all three Indians in the 149-strong qualifying field had a solid start with Apurvi and Elavenil taking the top two spots with scores of 633 and 632.7 after 60-shots each.

Anjum Moudgil shot 628.9 to finish in 11th place, just 1.1 points outside the final qualifying score of 630.0.

Indians had a good day at other events as well.

After the first round of qualifying in the women's 25m Pistol, Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat stood in second position with a score of 294.

A good rapid fire round on Monday and she can fancy her chances of winning a medal as well as an Olympic quota.

Manu Bhaker shot 289 and was a bit behind in 24th spot, while Chinki Yadav shot 276 to be in 95th place.

The two Tokyo 2020 Olympic quotas available on the day went to Laura-Georgeta Coman of Romania and 16-year old Hungarian Eszter Meszaros, who finished 5th and 6th respectively in the women's 10m air rifle, given the top four consisting of two Indians and two Chinese were not eligible.

India already has five quota places in Rifle and Pistol competitions.

As a result they forfeited their right to quotas in the women's air rifle and men's 10m air pistol competitions, given they have already secured the maximum possible two quotas in these events.

Apurvi, Anjum, Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma and Divyansh Singh Panwar have secured quotas for the country so far.

India's other quota is in the men's 10m air rifle and thus the shooters would be eligible for only one quota.

Monday will witness three finals with six Tokyo quota places up for grabs.

Triumphant Indian Women's Hockey team returns after series win over Republic of Korea

Rani-led Indian Women's Hockey team returned to Bengaluru on Sunday after winning the three-match series 2-1 against the Republic of Korea. 

The Indian team won back-to-back matches against the hosts and they lost the final match. India defeated the hosts 2-1 in the opening two matches whereas they lost the final match 0-4. In the series, defender Sunita Lakra completed 150 international matches for India and 18-year-old striker Lalremsiami completed 50 international matches.

"It was not exactly the way we wanted to finish the Series but I think the experience was important at this juncture," Indian team coach Marijne said in an official statement.

"Two of the three matches we did very good and executed our plans well. While those two wins were confidence boosting, we must forget those victories and only think about the last match which did not go according to plan and focus on how we can improve ahead of the crucial Olympic qualifying event," he added.

There will be a national coaching camp which will include 26 players ahead of the FIH Women's series finals. The camp commences on May 27.

For the FIH Women's series finals Hiroshima Japan, the Indian team will be grouped in Pool A where they will play against Uruguay, Poland and Fiji. The other participating teams include Mexico, Japan, Russia and Chile grouped in Pool B.

List of Core probables for the coaching camp: Savita, Rajani Etimarpu, Deep Grace Ekka, Sunita Lakra, Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam, Gurjit Kaur, Rashmita Minz, Nisha, Nikki Pradhan, Monika, Lilima Minz, Neha Goyal, Manpreet Kaur, Jyoti, Anuja Singh, Sonika, Karishma Yadav, Rani, Lalremsiami, Navneet Kaur, Navjot Kaur, Rajwinder Kaur, Vandana Katariya, Priyanka Wankhede, Amandeep Kaur, Reena Khokhar (under rehabilitation).