China's Huang Liwanlin and India's Shambhavi Shravan Kshirsagar stood above the rest today in Suhl, winning the men's and women's 10m air rifle titles at the ISSF Junior World Cup.
Huang, the junior world silver medallist, worked hard for his victory, holding off a worthy opponent in the form of Braden Wayne Peiser from the United States. Huang led the way heading into the elimination stage, followed by Germany's Florian Beer, India's Naraen Vanitha Suresh and Peiser. The first victims to elimination were Sweden's Jesper Johansson and France's Romain Aufrere, who won the gold medal yesterday in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions final. They were shortly followed by American Griffin Lake and Patrick Entner of Austria in fifth and sixth, a fair distance off the rest.
And a fair distance had formed by this point between the top two and the others. Peiser had taken a marginal lead and then went marginally behind before Huang's 10.9 and 10.5 combination gave him a comfortable cushion of over one point. Below-par shots opened the door for Peiser, but he was still just short, with the Chinese athlete scoring 250.3 compared to the American's 250.0. A back-and-forth fight for the bronze medal saw Vanita Suresh edge Beer by 0.1 points.
Kshirsagar's win was more resounding - holding the lead from the start despite a solid challenge from her teammate Ojasvi Thakur. The pair had started well alongside Li Shijia of China, with Carlotta Salafia of Italy and Olympic silver medallist Huang Yuting of China close behind.
However, Kshirsagar put distance between herself and the rest of the field, still enjoying a decent gap when mistakes were made. A particular highlight saw her score 10.8 and 10.9 to negate an impressive 10.7/10.8 combination from Li and pull out the gap elsewhere. By this point Manon Herbulot of France, Xenia Mund of Germany and AIN's Vitaliia Bulatova had exited. An error for Huang led to a shoot-off between herself and Salafia, with the Chinese athlete ending in fifth.
Kshirsagar held the lead, but the drama occurred behind. Li had been sitting second before two lower scores saw her fall behind Thakur and Salafia. Li missed the podium and a showdown between her two closest opponents were on for who would make the top two. A fantastic 10.8 from the Italian would not be enough due to a 10.1 in her first shot, unable to match the incredibly impressive 10.7 and 10.6 from Thakur, who ensured the Indian one-two. With Kshirsagar looking like they would be comfortable in first, she had to just hold her place - and did so, finishing with 253.0 to Thakur's 251.8.
Finally, Thomas Chinours from France claimed the gold medal in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol final, defeating Poland's Wiktor Kopiwoda on countback after both athletes finished on 26 points. They were neck-and-neck until a flawless fifth series for the Pole put some space between them. The Frenchman replied well over the next 15 shots to get back in touch and take the gold. Bronze went to Mukesh Nelavalli of India, one of his country's biggest prospects. He defeated Hungarian Mate Redecsi in a shoot-off. Akos Nagy of Hungary and Kirill Tsukanov of Kazakhstan were fifth and sixth.
You can find results and information from the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl
here.