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Adriyan Karmakar won his second medal in three days, a bronze in the 50m rifle three positions (3P) to go with his silver in the rifle prone, as India retained their top spot in the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup medal standings with a tally of one gold, two silvers and a bronze after three days of competition in Suhl, Germany. The 20-year-old on world cup debut, finished with 446.6 as Olympian and former prone junior world champion Romain Aufrere of France took gold with 459.7 and two-time prone junior world champion Jens Oestli took silver with 459.1.
Adriyan qualified for the 45-shot final with a 588 in qualification which gave him fourth spot in the 55-strong field. Romain and Jens were first and third respectively. Also qualifying was Jesper Johansson of Sweden, a junior world championship medalist and a silver medalist in Suhl last time around. While the Indian hovered around 13th and 14th spot right through the Kneeling and Prone positions, a streak of eight straight 10s including the final few shots in Prone and the first few in Standing, ensured an easy final passage in the end. In the final as well, Adriyan never moved above fourth as Romain, Jens and Jesper looked destined for the medals. Adriyan made his move after the first set of eliminations happened after the 40th shot, the 10th in the last Standing position. Having cut down his difference with third placed Jesper to 0.5, he fired 10.8 for his 41st and 10.6 for his 42nd to go a point ahead of the Swede. That cushion helped as Adriyan's 10.2 for his 43rd confirmed the medal despite Jesper's firing a 10.7 in bowing out. It wrapped up a great debut for the youngster having not only won two medals, but also having established a new junior national record in prone, in the process. Later a valiant effort by 17-year-old Anoushka Thokur, also on world cup debut, went abegging in the junior women's 3P as she finished seventh in the final. After being in medal contention for a better part of the final, she bowed out in the end alongside double Paris medalist Huang Yuting of China, after the 40th shot. She was then on a score of 405.2 and in went down in a shoot-off with the Czech Republic's Barbora Dubska. The Jaeggi sisters from Switzerland, Vivien Joy and Emely, finished 1-2 as China's Xu took bronze. Nine golds so far have gone to nine different nations including one to the group of Individual Neutral athletes (AIN). There are seven more on the line over the next three days with three, including the men's and women's air rifle and the men's 25m rapid-fire pistol are scheduled for Saturday (May 24, 2025). Other Indian scores on the day 25m Rapid-Fire Pistol Men Junior- Qualification Rd 1: Sagnik Banerjee- 287 (6th) Sameer-285 (11th) Tanishq Kodavali-285 (12th) Mukesh Nellavalli-284 (13th) Abhinav Choudhary-284 (14th) 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men Junior: Vedant Nitin Waghmare -579 (19th) Manvendra Singh Shekhawat -570 (49th) Harshvardhan Singh Naruka -569 (50th) 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women Junior: Mahit Sandhu 585-11th Prachi Gaikwad 578-31st Melvina Joel Gladson 566-55th.(ANI)
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