Shooting WC: Anjum clinches silver, India move up to third spot

Experienced Indian shooter Anjum Moudgil clinched a silver in the Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions as India moved up to third spot in the medal tally at the ISSF World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Friday.

Anjum went down 12-16 in the gold medal match to Denmark's Rikke Maeng Ibsen.

Anjum, also a world championship silver medallist, had on Thursday qualified for the top-eight ranking round with a score of 587 out of 600, which gave her a fourth place in a field of 60 shooters.

On Friday, she finished second to Ibsen in stage two with a 406.5 to the Norwegian's 411.4. She then put up a strong challenge in the final but could not put it across the Dane.

It is Anjum's second individual World Cup silver in the event.

The Men's 3P trio of Swapnil, Deepak Kumar and Goldie Gurjar also won a silver in the team competition.

The trio came through two rounds of qualifying to make it to the gold medal match which they lost 7-17 to Croatia. Ukraine picked up the bronze.

Swapnil Kusale had also finished second in the corresponding Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions on Thursday.

Indian now have one gold and three silver medals in the tournament and stand in third place behind Korea and Serbia.

There was heartbreak for the other two Indian women in the fray as Ayushi Podder finished 16th with a score of 585, just one point away from the final top-eight mark and Ashi Chouksey ended 20th with a score of 584.

The women's 3P team comprising Anjum and Ayushi won their first qualifying round with an aggregate of 1316 to make it to stage two. However, they could not get into the reckoning for a medal, finishing sixth in the ranking round with a score of 867, falling short of the medal rounds by a point.

India fielded a 12-member Rifle squad in the Baku World Cup.