CHENNAI: Sift Kaur Samra was in a spot of bother during the early stages of her competition at the Tiro Federal Argentino de Buenos Aires Shooting Range in Buenos Aires in the late afternoon (early Saturday morning IST) on Friday. But she made a remarkable comeback to capture her first gold medal at the ISSF World Cup.
The lone Indian to have earned a spot in the eight-woman 50m 3 positions final of the ongoing World Cup in Argentina, Sift was fighting for survival during kneeling — the first stage of the final. While Sift continued to err, the rest of the pack continued to thrive and widen the gap. After kneeling, Sift was bottom of the list — 3.5 off the No 7 shooter and a sizeable 7.2 off the leader.
But that’s not a new territory for the 23-year-old, who has made a habit of strong comebacks. In the second stage (prone, where the shooters lie flat on their stomach), Sift began to find her range and gradually gained ground on the rest. Despite a marked improvement, she was still last after the prone stage. However, Sift had saved the best for last. Like a Marvel superhero gaining their super power, Sift was a different beast in the final stage (standing). She was unstoppable while the rest struggled to hit the mark. After 10 shots of standing, Sift had flipped the narrative upside down. From a position of no hope, she had captured the coveted gold with a tally of 458.6, a first for the country in the ongoing competition.
Germany’s Anita Mangold (455.3) and Kazakhstan’s Arina Altukhova (445.9) captured silver and bronze, respectively.
After a subdued outing in the 2024 Paris Games, this is some sort of a comeback for Sift, who’s considered one of the brightest talents in the sport. The world record holder was visibly pleased with the final outcome. “It’s my first gold at the senior level and it feels amazing. A new place (Argentina) and a new World Cup and a new beginning of 2025,” Sift said while speaking to ISSF later.
“When it was kneeling, it was so bad. But I did not lose hope and I knew we can do it until the last shot. I have had this experience in the past, not doing well in kneeling but ending up doing good. But yes, I will work on kneeling more so that I can be first from start to finish,” the 2022 Asian Games winner added.
