The Singapore women's shooting team clinched a bronze medal yesterday in the 10m air rifle at the ISSF Junior World Cup held in Suhl, Germany.

Tessa Neo, Martina Veloso and Adele Tan finished with a combined total score of 1,236.6 - behind first-placed Russia (1,239.0) and India (1,238.8). Another Singapore team - Lenice Tan, Maggy Liao and Antonia Syn - finished fifth (1,234.9) in the same event.

Jeanine Heng, the Singapore Shooting Association's high performance manager, said: "I think, overall, it's a good result and a good indication that our girls are up there with the rest of the world.

"Third and fifth at a world junior event is a good result and overall, it was a good team effort."

Tessa missed out on qualifying for the individual final when she came in ninth.

Despite having the same score (413.4) as Russia's seventh-placed qualifier Daria Boldinova and Italy's Maria Schiava in eighth, Tessa lost on the basis of inner 10s.

Lenice came in 10th (413.2), Maggy took 11th (413.1) and Martina finished 16th (412.4). Adele's 410.8 placed her 28th and Antonia's 408.6 put her in 43rd.

But Heng remained positive. She said: "Individually, we did expect some of them to enter the final. I think the girls themselves are more disappointed than we are.

"As long as we know they've tried their hardest, we are okay."

When they return to Singapore tomorrow, Antonia and Lenice will be focusing on meeting the selection criteria for the Asian Youth Games and Youth Olympic Games.

Meanwhile, Adele, Maggy and Martina will be training their sights on the Munich leg of the ISSF World Cup.

Heng added: "Our goal is to prepare a strong team of female rifle shooters that can represent Singapore in major competitions. The result seems to indicate we are moving in the right direction."