Gurpreet Singh (AFP Photo) NEW DELHI: Olympian Gurpreet Singh came heart-poundingly close to being crowned world champion in the men’s 25m Center Fire Pistol but had to settle for silver, losing the gold to Ukraine’s Pavel Korostylov inside 10 after both shooters finished with identical totals at the Olympic range.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SIGN UP NOW!This is Gurpreet’s second individual medal from the World Championships, the previous one being a silver in 2018 in the 25m standard pistol. France’s Yann Pierre Louis Fridrici took the bronze.With Gurpreet’s silver, India finished third at the World Championships with 13 medals – three gold, six silver and four bronze. China dominated the overall standings with 12 golds, while South Korea finished second with seven golds.Gurpreet staged a spirited comeback during the two-day competition. After finishing ninth in the precision leg with 288-8x (95, 97, 96), he produced a superb 296-10x (98, 99, 99) in the fast section to put himself into medal contention and eventually take silver. Korostylov, who led the way for accuracy with 291-14x, equaled Gurpreet’s total by shooting 293-15x in the rapid phase, winning gold thanks to 29 inner 10s and a flawless 100 in the final rapid series.India’s Harpreet Singh, second in accuracy round (291-10x), slipped to ninth place overall after a disappointing quick score of 286-6x. Sahil Choudhary finished 28th with 561-14x.The Indian trio also missed out on the team podium, finishing fifth.India’s medal haul featured outstanding performances in various events, including golds from Samrat Rana (10m Air Pistol) and Ravinder Singh (50m Standard Pistol), while stars like Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Anish Bhanwala, Esha Singh and Gurpreet Singh himself added crucial silver and bronze medals to round off a strong campaign.
