Divanshi and Mukesh Nelavalli secured gold medals in the women’s and men’s 25m pistol events, as India claimed five more golds on day four of the ISSF Junior World Championship in Lima, Peru. This boosted India’s overall tally to 14 medals, including 10 gold, one silver, and three bronze. The USA (10 medals) and Italy (8 medals) followed in second and third place, respectively.
Divanshi scored 35 in the final, beating Italy’s Cristina Magnani by two points, with France’s Heloise Fourre finishing third. She also won another gold in the junior women’s 25m pistol team event, teaming up with Tejaswini and Vibhuti Bhatia to achieve a total score of 1711, surpassing Czechia and Germany.
Despite a challenging start in the individual final, where Divanshi missed seven of her first 15 targets and initially ranked sixth, she made an impressive comeback. By hitting 16 out of the next 20 targets, she climbed to second place with three more series to go in the 10-series final.
In the ninth series, Divanshi tied with Magnani, both with 31 hits, but the Indian athlete scored four hits in the crucial moment while the Italian missed three. France’s Fourre, who had been in second after the eighth series, ended up with bronze after missing three targets in the ninth series.
In the decisive 10th series, Divanshi repeated her four-hit performance, while Magnani missed three more targets, securing the gold for India. Divanshi had earlier qualified for the final by finishing fifth with a score of 577 in the precision and rapid-fire rounds. Tejaswini finished 13th, Vibhuti 22nd, and Naamya Kapoor 40th.
Mukesh Nelavalli added two more golds to bring his total to three in the championship. He won the junior men’s 25m pistol event with a score of 585, two points ahead of Suraj Sharma, who earned India’s first silver. Nelavalli, Sharma, and Pradhyumn Singh also clinched team gold in the event with a combined score of 1729, beating Poland, who scored 1726, and Italy, who came third.
India’s fifth gold on day four came in the junior men’s 50m rifle 3 positions (3P) team event, where Shourya Saini, Vedant Nitin Waghmare, and Parikshit Singh Brar equaled the junior world record with a score of 1753, winning gold. Norway took silver, five points behind, and Sweden won bronze.
Shourya also reached the individual final after finishing seventh in the qualification round with a score of 583, but he eventually placed seventh in the final.
