Jung fails at World Championship

Samresh Jung, who was named Best Athlete of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, finished a poor 32nd in the men's Free Pistol event at the ISSF World Shooting Championships in Zagreb, Croatia.

Jung shot a score of 552 with a series of 95, 92, 95, 93, 87 and 90 which was not good enough for him to qualify for the finals. In the elimination round Samresh had shot 549.

The gold medal in this event was won by Tan Zongliang of China with a score of 667.1 (570 + 97.1), the silver went to Vijilio Fait of Italy with 662.8 (565 + 97.8), while Vladimir Isakov of Russia won the bronze with a score of 662.7 (568 + 94.7).

In the 10m Air Rifle Junior women's event, Soudaminee Gavankar also finished 32nd after the Indian shooter shot a score of 391 with a series of 98, 97, 98 and 98.

Among her compatriots, Navdeep Dhillon finished 36th with a score of 390 (96, 97, 100 and 97), while Radhika Barale finished 56th with a score of 388 (97, 95, 99 and 97).

China's Zhang Yi won the gold with a score of 399, while the silver went to Korean Sena Lee at 397 and Yuriko Kaizuka of Japan won the bronze with a score of 396.

Earlier, Sonia Rai finished 41st in the 10m pistol women's event after scoring 377 with a series of 95, 92, 94 and 96. Annuraj Singh finished 45th with a score of 377 (94, 93, 96 and 94) while Saroja Kumari finished 74th at 372 (94, 94, 88 and 96).

Russian Natalia Paderina won the gold totalling 486.9 (387 + 99.9), the silver went to Hu Jun of China at 485.2 (387 + 98.2), while Belarussian Viktoria Chaika bagged the bronze with 485.1 (384 + 101.1).

Indian marksman Zakir Khan finished seventh in the 25m Pistol Junior men's event.

Zakir shot a score of 572 with 288 (98, 92 and 98) in Precision and 284 (95, 95 and 94) in Rapid. Pushpender Singh finished 19th with a score of 562, while Nikhil Yadav finished 25th with a score of 559.

Russian marksman Leonid Ekinov pocketed the gold in shoot-off after he was level with Frenchman Thibaut Sauvaji at 580.

Russian Ivan Stoukachev won the bronze with a score of 576.

In the team event, India missed the bronze medal by a whisker as they finished fourth with a score of 1693.

Russia (1721) won the gold, followed by France (1715) and Korea (1694).