India's Vijayveer Sidhu won a silver medal in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol event in New Delhi on Friday. The 18-year-old Sidhu was appearing in his maiden senior World Cup. Sidhu scored 26 in the final to finish tied first with Estonia's Peeter Olesk, who then defeated Sidhu 4-1 in the ensuing shoot-off. Poland's Oskar Miliwek won bronze with a score of 20.
Sidhu is a former world junior champion, having won the 25m standard pistol event at the Changwon Junior World Championships in 2018.
Later, the Indian team comprising Swapnil Kusale, Chain Singh and Niraj Kumar defeated Nickolaus Mowrer, Patrick Sunderman and Timothy Sherry of the USA 47-25 to win gold in the 50m rifle 3 positions men's team event. India are currently at the top of the medals tally with 25 medals -- including 12 golds, seven silvers and six bronze medals. This is easily India's best display at a World Cup. They have never previously won more than five golds at any edition of the tournament.
Earlier in the qualification round, Sidhu had finished sixth, scoring 579 points, while teammates Gurpreet Singh (581) and Anish Bhanwala (579) finished third and fifth respectively. In the final, however, Gurpreet was eliminated first, finishing sixth with nine points in the bag. Bhanwala finished fifth, scoring 13.
Previously in the day, the Indian team of Sanjeev Rajput and Tejaswini Sawant won gold in the 50m rifle 3 positions mixed team event, while Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Sunidhi Chauhan secured bronze.
