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Sports shorts: Mittal wins silver at World Shotgun Championship

September 05, 2017 22:34 IST

Ankur Mittal

IMAGE: Ankur Mittal in action. Photograph: Kind Courtesy, Ankur Mittal/Facebook

India's Ankur Mittal won silver medal in the men's double trap event at the ongoing ISSF World Shotgun Championship, in Moscow, on Tuesday.

In the junior category, 17-year-old Ahvar Rizvi also won a silver medal in the same event.

In the men's event, Mittal scored 66 points as he maintained his lead till the final four shots when Russia's Vitaly Fokeev took over, eventually winning the event with 68 points. He had scored 145 points to finish first in the qualifiers.

Sangram Dahiya ended in 20th place with 135, while Mohammad Asab came in 23rd with 133 hits in the qualifying round.

The trio combined for a fifth spot in the Team category with 413 points, where Italy won Gold with 418.

In the junior men's double trap team event, India won the gold with a combined score of 401. Italy won silver with 389 and China bronze with 387.

In the individual final, Ahvar carried his shoot-off momentum and shot brilliantly to lead for right till the end, but lost the gold in the last two targets to talented Briton James Dedman.

Ahvar finished with 66 out of 80 targets with Dedman a point ahead on 67. Dedman won Bronze in the senior category at the New Delhi World Cup stage event earlier this year, as well as a Junior World Cup Gold very recently in Italy.

Shardul was the first to bow out of the final in sixth position, shooting 19 targets out of the first 30.

Italy is top of the medal table so far with six gold medals and a total of 11 medals. India is in fourth spot with one gold and two silver medals.

Indian football team down Macau

IMAGE: The Indian football team. Photograph: AIFF Media

Substitute striker Balwant Singh's opportunistic second half double strike helped India beat Macau 2-0 in a group league encounter of the Asian Cup qualifying round, taking their unbeaten run in international matches to 11 in Macau, on Tuesday.

The former Mohun Bagan goal poacher found the target in the 57th and 82nd minute respectively as the 'Blue Tigers' won their third successive match in the qualifying tournament, maintaining their pole position in the group with nine points.

With nine points from three games, India are now firmly in contention to seal a berth for the 2019 edition of the tournament.

Ranked 96th in the FIFA list, India were overwhelming favourites against minnows Macau -- currently ranked 183rd.

However, the home team managed to defend their citadel in the first half, which that ended goalless. It was Balwant, who replaced Eugenesen Lyngdoh post change of ends, broke the deadlock.

In the 57th minute, it was side-back Narayan Das, who had overlapped down wide right and sent a floater inside the box. Balwant timed his jump to perfection as he angled his header with a marker on tow.

The second goal in the 82nd minute was more to do with a defensive lapse as Balwant showed his predatory skills, snatching a ball from the opposition defender just outside the corner of the 18-yard box.

From the corner of his eye, he saw that custodian Ho Man Fai was out of charge and his neat placement ensured an unassailable lead for the visiting team.

It wasn't one of the best matches for India's lead strike duo of Sunil Chhetri and Jeje Lalpheklhua as they were man marked by the home team defenders.

In the first half, the only notable scoring chance was in the 37th minute -- a rasping left-footer from Lyngdoh, which hit the horizontal.

The other chance was a neat centre from Narayan in the 40th minute that Jeje couldn't head home.

The Indian left-back was a livewire as most of the moves were initiated from the particular flank.

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