Gurpreet finishes fifth in rapid fire pistol final

Gurpreet Singh, who has already secured a Rio Olympics quota for India, today displayed great form to reach the finals of men's 25m rapid fire pistol event at the ISSF World Cup in first place with a combined score of 586 over two stages of qualification in Gabala, Azerbaijan.
In the six-man final however, Gurpreet appeared subdued, not once shooting a perfect series of five shots, to finish in fifth position.
The event saw yet another Chinese 1-2 at the top, with Hu Haozhe beating compatriot Lao Jiajie to the gold. Boris Artaud of France won the bronze medal.
The other Indians in the rapid fire pistol event, former Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar and Pemba Tamang ended with scores of 573 and 563 to be placed 27th and 41st respectively.

In other news from the Indian participation in the day, Gagan Narang and team mates Chain Singh and Surendra Singh Rathod also could not make it to the finals of the 50m rifle prone event. Olympic bronze medallist Gagan Narang, who has also secured a quota for Rio, shot 623.6 to end 23rd, while Chain Singh finished in 29th position with a score of 622.9. Surendra Singh Rathod shot 617.9 to be placed 53rd.
In the women's 50m rifle 3 positions event, Lajja Gauswami was placed 13th in qualifying with a score of 577 while Elizabeth Susan Koshy lay 16th with 576.

Anjum Moudgil, India's third entrant in the event ended her qualification round with a score of 572. She ended her day in 27th place.