BHOPAL: The 19-year-old Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil put his hand on his chest to feel his heart after his last shot. "I think it was racing at around 200," he said with a smile following his second bronze-medal finish at the ISSF World Cup here at the Madhya Pradesh State Shooting Academy.
Patil didn't get a good start in the ranking match after finishing fourth among the top eight qualifiers with a score of 631.0. But he erased the deficit of 0.8 in the fifth series of five shots to break into top three that was until then being dominated by the Chinese trio of Sheng Lihao, Du Linshu and Yu Haonan (261.7), who was left in fourth place by Patil's 262.3 for a bronze medal.
India's other finalist Hriday Hazarika was eliminated in sixth place. He shot 208.7.
It was Patil's second medal of the tournament. He claimed a bronze along with R Narmada Raju in the mixed team air rifle event on Thursday.
The gold-medal match was a close all-Chinese battle between Lihao and Linshu. Lihao won it 17-13 for China's fourth gold of the tournament. They lead the medals tally with 4 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze after the first of the two finals scheduled for Friday. The women's 10m air rifle final will be played later in the day.
India are No.2 on the medals tally with 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals.
India's only gold medal of the tournament so far was won by air pistol shooter Sarabjot Singh on the opening day of the competition on Wednesday.
"My hands were almost shaking and the heart was jumping," said Patil after the men's 10m air rifle final. "In a competition like the World Cup, the body is very tense and it is difficult to control that. It requires a lot of energy.
"Confidence is one thing, but energy is a different part (of the process)."
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