"VAN" (Sports Desk - 05.04.2025) :: Hungary's Istvan Peni and India's Sift Kaur Samra were crowned winners in Buenos Aires in the men's and women's 50m rifle 3 positions events, providing more drama on the opening days of the first leg of the 2025 ISSF World Cup.
In the men's final, Peni showed his quality in the standing section to overturn the lead of Tian Jiaming of China.
The Hungarian was second after the kneeling section to Tian and brought that deficit down to 0.1 points after the prone shooting. From there, Peni did not look back, building a resounding lead before the single standing shots and held onto his lead.
It became his seventh ISSF World Cup individual win (including World Cup Finals), as he continues to establish himself as one of the most-decorated athletes in the competition's history. Peni finished with a total of 461.0 to Tian's 458.8. Meanwhile, it was the 2023 Asian silver medallist's first World Cup podium.
Having sat sixth after the kneeling section, Chain Singh of India came through for bronze thanks to a solid prone total and consistent scores, beating compatriot Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar. Austria's Alexander Schmirl, Zalan Pekler of Hungary, Niraj Kumar from India and top qualifier Zhao Wenyu of China finished positions fifth to eighth.
The women's final saw victory for Samra of India - going from last to first from the beginning to the end of the standing section. Samra trailed the leader, Anita Mangold of Germany, by 7.2 points after the first position, and had to slowly claw themselves back into contention.
It was the standing section where the Indian thrived, with two consistent rounds before the single shots which saw her overturn a deficit of 4.3 within 10 shots. This took her to the top of the standings above the Germans Mangold and Nele Stark.
While Stark faltered, finishing sixth, Mangold remained Samra's closest challenger. The Indian was incredibly consistent in the end, finishing with a total of 458.6 to the German's 455.3. Arina Altukhova from Kazakhstan was narrowly beaten to second, instead winning the bronze medal.
It was Samra's first World Cup gold medal after one team and two individual bronze medals previously. Mangold won her second World Cup medal, three years after taking the title in Rio de Janeiro. The 21-year-old Altukhova claimed her second individual medal after a gold in Jakarta in 2023.
Chinese pair Wang Zifei and Miao Wanru just missed out on the medals, ahead of Stark, Olivia Hoffman of Austria and Switzerland's Emely Jaeggi.
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