Apurvi Chandela wins year's second women's 10m Air Rifle World Cup gold
New Delhi: 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
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Bihar: Over 150 children fall ill after consuming 'mid-day meal' in Saharsa
Saharsa (PTI): More than 150 children were taken ill after allegedly consuming food that was part of the mid-day meal in a school in Bihar’s Saharsa district, a senior official said on Thursday.
The incident occurred at a middle school in Baluaha village of the district.
The official said that 115 children were undergoing treatment at the Sadar Hospital, while around 50 students were admitted to Mahishi Public Health Centre.
“We received information that several children fell ill after consuming the mid-day meal in Baluaha. The children were initially treated at the primary health centre, but later, many were referred to the Sadar Hospital,” Saharsa District Magistrate Deepesh Kumar told reporters.
“According to doctors, the health condition of the children has improved, but they will be kept under observation for some time. There is no need to panic. Some kids are having mild fever. They are being treated accordingly,” Kumar said.
Meanwhile, family members of some children claimed that a snake was found in the container in which cooked pulses was stored at the school.
Of the 545 students present in the school, 200 had already eaten their meals by the time the snake was spotted, and later complained of stomach ache and vomiting, they said.
Regarding the claims, the DM said food samples have been collected from the school.
“We will be able to comment on this only after the results of the tested samples arrive,” he said.
