New Delhi: Young 10m air pistol shooter Saurabh Chaudhary, returning to the national team after nearly two years, achieved a notable milestone by securing a bronze medal on the opening day of the ISSF Shooting World Cup in Lima, Peru, on Tuesday. His cousin, Varun Tomar, finished in fourth place during the final.

At 22 years old, Saurabh is still working to regain the composure he displayed in previous seasons, scoring 219.1 points to place third, behind China's Kai Hu (246.4) and Brazil's Felipe Almeida Wu (241) in a competitive field that included China's world No. 1 and gold medallist from the Paris Games, Yu Xie. His last individual World Cup medal was a gold at the Cairo World Cup in 2022.

Saurabh began strong, ranking second after the initial series, but fell to fifth in Series 3 and 4. However, he rebounded with scores of 10.2 and 10.6 in the subsequent rounds, allowing him to climb back to second place. Although he struggled to achieve inner-10s, he managed to maintain his position within the top three, concluding the second World Cup of the year with a medal. Recently, he also secured a mixed team bronze alongside Suruchi Phogat at the World Cup in Buenos Aires.

Tomar, an Olympian set to compete in Paris, fell out of medal contention after 16 shots, delivering subpar scores of 9.1 and 9.7. Meanwhile, 23-year-old Kai Hu from China showcased exceptional consistency, leading after the first series of 10 shots and maintaining his position throughout. Having recently won gold at the Buenos Aires World Cup, Hu narrowly missed breaking the world record of 246.5 by just 0.1 point, following a less-than-ideal score of 9.3 on his second-to-last shot.

Indian shooters secured three bronze medals at last year's Paris Olympics.

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