Pune: What could have been a dream start turned into heartbreak for Sakshi Padekar in the women's 10m air rifle event at the Munich World Cup on Thursday. Sakshi, participating in her first senior and second overall international event, entered the final but finished in seventh position.
Qualification Performance
Sakshi shot an impressive 635.1 in the qualification round with three series above 106. She was close to breaking the current national record of 635.9, set by Elavenil Valarivan. She finished third in the qualification round, but pressure got the better of her in the final.
"I shot fearlessly in the qualification round and didn't think much about the scores. However, I took pressure in the final as I started expecting a good result from myself. I made some mistakes and couldn't recover," said Sakshi, 22, who trains at the Gun For Glory Academy in Pune.
Indian Contingent Performance
Sakshi was the only Indian to qualify for the medal round. Her compatriots Elavenil Valarivan finished 19th after shooting 632.1, while Arya Borse was 63rd with 627.6.
Medal Winners
The gold medal was won by Serbian shooter Andelija Stevanovic with a score of 252.3. The silver went to Japan's Misaki Nobata with 252, and the bronze was claimed by China's Zifei Wang, who shot 231.1.
