Kanak Kanak of India and AIN's Ivan Semenikhin were winners in the women's and men's 10m air pistol events, winning gold medals at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany.
Kanak impressed on the elimination stage in the women's final, pushing ahead with four shots to go. The early leaders included China's Zhao Taotao and Kanak's teammate Prachi Prachi. Both struggled in the elimination stages, leading to their exits in sixth and fifth place. In the latter stages, it was a battle between the Indian, Cheng Yen-Ching of Chinese Taipei and Anna Dulce of Moldova.
Cheng had ensured a podium by beating Jin Bohan of China to the top three, but after a strong start, could not keep touch with Dulce and Kanak. Going into the final round, it was the Indian's to lose, having overturned a 0.9 lead with two tremendous shots to move into first by 1.4. Going into the last series of shots, Kanak increased this to 2.1. A strong finish by Dulce could not eat into the lead enough - Kanak won gold with a total of 239.0 to Dulce's 237.3.
The men's title went to Seminikhin, who led from start to finish. Within his first two shots, he had already pulled a gap of 1.4 to his nearest competitor and by the time the first stage had been completed, he led Imandos Bektenov of Kyrgyzstan by 2.2 points. While he dominated the first stage, the elimination stage looked shaky at times. Following an impressive combination from Bektenov and an underwhelming series from himself, Seminikhin's lead was cut to just 0.1.
Ivan Semenikhin claimed victory in the men's 10m air pistolMeanwhile, the rest of the field were far behind, fighting to make it on the podium. Climentii Ursu of Moldova, Luca Arrighi from Italy and Azerbaijan's Vladislav Kalmikov finished sixth, seventh and eighth - a fair gap behind those still in contention. At the point of Ursu's elimination, the trio of AIN's Yury Krautsou, Akos Karoly Nagy of Hungary and Chirag Sharma of India were separated by less than a point.
Sharma edged ahead of Nagy to keep in the top four and in fact, overtook Krautsou in the process. But Krautsou would respond convincingly to take the bronze medal.
However at the front, Semenikhin was maintaining his lead. For every extension, Bektenov would come back, but crucially, could not do enough to overtake the leader. In the end, Semenikhin defeated Bektenov by a score of 241.0 to 240.2.
Norway's Caroline Finnestad Lund and Sweden's Jesper Johansson also took the first gold medals of the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl in the women's and men's 50m rifle prone events.
After a slower start over the first two series, Lund scored 106.0 to move up the order. From there, she moved into the lead and extended it to finish on a commanding total of 628.2. A very close battle ensued for the silver and bronze medals as Czechia's Klaudie Katz, Kazakhstan's Anastassiya Grigoryeva and Wilhelmina Woskowiak of Poland, who were tied on 626.6.
Katz would claim the silver by scoring 105.2 on her final series on countback - the highest of the three. Grigoryeva and Woskowiak scored 105.1, meaning the series five score would be considered. Woskowiak's 104.6 got her the bronze, ahead of Grigoryeva's 102.8.
Johansson held off Adriyan Karmakar of India for the men's gold by a score of 627.0 to 626.7. Karmakar outscored the Swede by 2.2 points in the last series, but it was not enough to go into gold. However, the Indian would jump into the silver medal, with Griffin Lake of the United States holding onto the bronze medal with a score of 624.6, just in front of Kiano Waibel of Austria on 624.5.