India Shines Bright With Five Golds On Day Four Of Junior Worlds; Divanshi Triumphs In Women's 25m Pistol

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The Indian junior shooting team secured five additional gold medals on the fourth day of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Championship for Rifle, Pistol, and Shotgun in Lima, Peru.

This impressive performance keeps India at the top of the medal standings with 10 golds, one silver, and three bronze medals. The USA and Italy trail in second and third place, each with two golds. Divanshi capped off the day by clinching gold in the junior women's 25m pistol event, scoring 35 points to surpass Italy's Cristina Magnani by two points in the final. France's Heloise Fourre finished third.

Divanshi faced a challenging path to gold after missing seven of her first 15 targets in the final, placing her in sixth position early on. However, she staged a remarkable comeback, hitting 16 of her next 20 shots to climb to second place with three more rounds of five shots remaining in the 10-round final.

Italian shooter Cristina Magnani, who had led from the start, was tied with Divanshi at 31 hits after the ninth round. But when it mattered most, Divanshi delivered with four hits, while Cristina missed three. France's Heloise Fourre, who had briefly overtaken Divanshi after the eighth round, had to settle for bronze after missing three shots in the ninth round.

In the 10th and final series, Divanshi matched her four-hits performance from the ninth series to clinch victory, while the Italian faltered again, missing three targets.

Earlier in the day, Divanshi secured her spot in the final by placing fifth in the qualification round with a score of 577, accumulated over the precision and rapid-fire stages of 30 shots each. Tejaswini (569) finished 13th, Vibhuti (565) ranked 22nd, and Naamya Kapoor placed 40th with 552.

Mukesh Nelavalli emerged as another star for India, securing two more gold medals, bringing his total to three in the championship so far.

He claimed the junior men's 25m Pistol gold with a score of 585, finishing two points ahead of fellow Indian Suraj Sharma, who earned India's first silver of the event. Alongside Pradhyumn Singh (561), the trio clinched the team gold, narrowly edging out Poland by three points, with a final tally of 1729. Italy finished third.

Earlier, Mukesh had also contributed to India's gold in the men's 10m air pistol team event on the first day.

India secured its fifth gold on day four in the junior men's 50m rifle 3 positions (3P) team event, with Shourya Saini, Vedant Nitin Waghmare, and Parikshit Singh Brar scoring a combined 1753 points, matching the junior world record in the elimination round. Norway trailed by five points to claim silver, while Sweden finished seven points behind to take bronze.

Individually, Shourya advanced to the final after placing seventh in the qualification round with a score of 583 across the three positions, eventually finishing seventh. Vedant narrowly missed out on a finals spot, ranking ninth with the same score of 583 but losing out on inner 10-ring shots. Parikshit Singh Brar finished 14th with a score of 582.