ISSF Junior World Cup: Tejaswani bags silver; India finishes at top in medal tally

NEW DELHI: Shooter Tejaswani Singh clinched a silver medal as India wrapped up the ISSF Junior World Cup 2025, which took place in New Delhi, by topping the medals tally on Wednesday.

Competing at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range, Tejaswani Singh, who won gold at the Junior ISSF World Cup Suhl, lost the final to Aleksandra Tikhonova, according to Olympics.com. Tikhonova was steady from the start in the 25m pistol women junior final by hitting 33 to secure gold.

Tejaswani, who had dominated qualification with 580-17x, kept pace with Tikhonova but finished with silver on 30, while Italy’s Alessandra Fait completed the podium with 28. Among other Indian shooters in the final, Naamya Kapoor (21) finished fourth and Riya Shirish Thatte (16) was fifth.

New Delhi | Mukesh Nelavalli clinches gold in the men’s 25-meter pistol event, while Tejaswani Singh secures silver in the women’s category, as India tops the medals table at the 𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐅 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐂𝐮𝐩.#ISSFJuniorWorldCup #ISSFJWCNewDelhi2025 #Shooting pic.twitter.com/vEDELwzDxE

— DD News (@DDNewslive) October 2, 2025

Meanwhile, the trap mixed team final was an all-Czech duel. Czechia’s Tereza Zaviskova and Tomas Nantl edged out compatriots Lea Kucerova and Kamil Bednar 39-38 for gold. European junior champions Irene Del Rey Ruiz and Isaac Hernandez from Spain defeated Italy’s Sofia Gori and Luca Gerri 7-6 in a shoot-off to win bronze after a 40-40 tie in the bronze medal match.

The Trap Mixed Team Junior final produced a close all-Czech duel, with Zaviskova and Nantl edging compatriots Lea Kucerova, who won trap women junior gold yesterday, and Kamil Bednar 39-38 for gold.

In the 25m pistol men junior individual, a non-Olympic event, junior world champion Mukesh Nellavalli from India built on his precision stage score of 289-9x from Tuesday with a superb 296-14x in rapid fire to finish with 585-23x for gold.

Aleksandr Kovalev, already a 25m rapid fire pistol champion earlier in the competition, took silver with 577-17x, while Sahil Choudhary ensured another medal for India with bronze on 573-21x.

India finished the ISSF Junior World Cup 2025 New Delhi on top of the standings with 26 medals – eight gold, 10 silver and eight bronze. They won six gold, eight silver and five bronze in the Olympic shooting events.

The 11th edition of the ISSF Junior World Cup, and the first ever hosted in India, featured 208 shooters from 19 federations across 15 Olympic medal events and three non-Olympic medal events. (ANI)