Shooters Ravi, Arjun falter at World Cup
Changwon (South Korea), April 22: India's Ravi Kumar and Arjun Babuta finished fourth and sixth respectively in the men's 10 metre Air Rifle event at the second International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup here on Sunday.
Both Ravi and Arjun had raised hopes of a medal, but missed out in the end. Ravi was competing in his fifth ISSF final in two years and youngster Arjun, playing his first senior World Cup, also gave a good account of himself.
Russia's Alexander Dryagin shot a world record 251.2 in the final to take the gold medal. Fellow Russian and Rio Olympics bronze medallist Vladimir Maslennikov took silver with a score of 250.2 after the 24-shot final.
World No.1 Istvan Peni of Hungary got the bronze with a score of 228.5. Peni had pipped Ravi by 0.2 points at the end of 20 shots. Ravi bowed out in fourth place after leading the finals initially with a score of 208.4.
Arjun, also leading the final at one stage, finished sixth eventually with a score of 165.2.
Earlier, in the 92-strong qualification round, Ravi shot a 629.2 after 60 shots to qualify second while Arjun shot 627.0 to capture the eighth and final qualifying spot.
Deepak Kumar, the third Indian in the fray, missed out, placing 15th after shooting a score of 625.9.
In the women's 10m Air Rifle, Apurvi Chandela shot 627 to finish 10th, the best among the three Indians in the fray.
She missed out on a final berth by a point. Mehuli Ghosh shot 626.0 to end in 17th place while Anjum Moudgil shot 625.5 to finish in 20th spot.
China's World Cup debutant Zhao Ruozhou won gold in the event with a world record score of 252.4. Chinese Taipei's Ying-Shin Lin took silver and Norway's Jenny Stene got the bronze.
Both Rahi Sarnobat and Heena Sidhu shot 291 out of 300 to finish the first qualification stage of the women's 25m Pistol in the 10th and 13th positions respectively in a 61-shooter strong field. Annu Raj Singh was lying 20th with a score of 288.
In the women's Trap, after the first day of qualification, Shreyasi Singh with 64 hits out of 75 was the best placed Indian at the 30th position.
Shagun Chowdhary had 63 to lie 36th while Seema Tomar shot 60 to be in 47th place. The top six qualify for the finals in both the events.
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PM Modi, Serbian prez discuss ways to deepen cooperation across multiple sectors
New Delhi (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday met President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić and discussed ways to deepen cooperation in areas such as defence, manufacturing, fertilisers and infrastructure.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of the India AI Impact Summit being held here from February 16-20.
"Met President Aleksandar Vučić on the sidelines of the India AI Impact Summit. We discussed ways to deepen cooperation in areas such as defence, manufacturing, DPI, fertilisers and infrastructure. For many years, India and Serbia have worked closely and I am confident our ties will gain even more momentum in the times to come," Modi wrote on X.
Vučić said the two leaders were proud of the friendship between Serbia and India, and the people of the two nations.
"India is a reliable and important partner for us, and we want to deepen economic exchange and encourage new investment projects. I am especially happy because India wants significant participation in the Serbian #Expo," he said in a post on X in Serbian.
The India AI Impact Expo features more than 600 high-potential startups and 13 country pavilions showcasing international collaboration in the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem. Over 20 heads of state, 60 ministers and 500 global AI leaders are attending the summit.
