DHAKA, Mar 24: India tasted their first defeat in the SAFF U-17 Women’s Football Championship as they lost 0-1 to hosts Bangladesh at the BSSS Mostafa Kamal Stadium here on Friday. India had an early chance through Pooja, who got on to a scuffed clearance and attempted to dink the keeper, but her effort went wide. Chances were few and far between, but India’s Shilji Shaji looked lively, making runs at the opposition defence. She made a dangerous foray into the Bangladesh box from the left at the half-hour mark, but was stopped in her tracks. A little ahead of the half time whistle, Shibani got on to a dangerous position in the flanks as she was fed in by Lalita, but the former’s cross lacked power. India replaced Deneka Devi with Babita Kumari at the restart as the first half ended in a stalemate. Shilji again looked to get into a dangerous position around the hour mark, but the cross by Shibani was cut out by the Bangladesh defence. Lalita had a golden chance just 10 minutes later, when a miscued clearance by the Bangladesh defence fell kindly for her, but her effort went wide. Disaster struck for the Young Tigresses in the 73rd minute, when a wrongly timed header by Akhila ended in the Indian net. As the clock wore down, Pooja missed a header from close range with just 10 minutes of regulation time left. Shibani had the perfect chance to equalise in the 90th minute when she was played through by Shilji, and had only the keeper to beat, but Bangladesh custodian Songgita pulled off a brilliant save. Shilji herself had the last chance to draw level in the fifth minute of injury time, when India were awarded a free-kick at the edge of the Bangladesh area. However, her effort sailed over the crossbar. (PTI)

Bhopal, Mar 24:  Reigning world champion Rudrankksh Patil won bronze in the men’s 10m air rifle, his second of the tournament, even as China extended their golden run at the ISSF World Cup by winning both gold medals on offer for the second consecutive day here.

Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Sheng Lihao of China won gold in the men’s 10m air rifle while compatriot Huang Yuting, a double gold medallist at the Cairo World Championships last year, won the women’s event.

China maintained their top position on the medal tally at the end of competition day three with five gold, one silver and two bronze in their kitty. India lay second with three bronze medals to go with a gold and silver each.

Playing back-to-back matches can never be easy, especially in a home World Cup, but the champion shooter that he is, Rudrankksh delivered yet again, clinching bronze from what at one point seemed a lost cause.

He shot a solid 631.0 in qualification to finish fourth after leading in the initial stages. In the 25-shot top eight ranking round, he was well outside the medal positions till the third five-shot series, before a fantastic fourth series, where he shot the highest score of 53.5, brought him back into contention.

Meanwhile the three Chinese qualifiers — Sheng (who led throughout the ranking round), silver medallist Du Linshu and Yu Haonan — were on course to make it a Chinese 1-2-3 till the 20th shot.

Rudrankksh went into the fifth series 0.8 behind Yu. He then shot a strong 52.6 in the series as Yu faltered, posting 51.5 to finish fourth, as the Indian confirmed his second medal in two days and his fourth ISSF World Cup podium overall.

He finished with a score of 262.3 as Sheng and Du moved into the gold medal match with scores of 264.2 and 263.3 respectively.

The all-China gold medal contest was also a close one with Sheng prevailing 17-13 in the end.

Ramita finishes fourth

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India had only one top eight finisher in Ramita in the women’s 10m air rifle as she shot 632.3 to finish second among the medal contenders in the 52-strong field. The top eight had two Chinese, two Americans and one shooter each from Romania, Israel and Kazakhstan, besides hosts India.

China’s Huang Yuting was in ominous form, topping the qualifications with a score of 632.8, while Tokyo Olympics silver medallist in the mixed team air rifle, Mary Tucker of the USA, also made it through in seventh place.

In the top eights, Huang was a cut above the rest, finishing on top again with a score of 265.7 as Mary shot 261.2 for a shot at gold.

Kazakhstan’s Alexandra Le pipped India’s Ramita to bronze, shooting 261.2 to the Indian’s 260.5. Huang then maintained her form on the day to defeat Mary 16-4 for China’s fifth gold of the competition.  (PTI)

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