Manu Bhaker helps Indian women’s pistol team win bronze at ISSF World Cup
The women’s pistol team beat Hungary to win the bronze medal. The men’s rifle team lost to Serbia in the bronze medal playoff.
Indian shooters Manu Bhaker, Rahi Sarnobat and Yashaswini Singh Deswal won the women’s air pistol team bronze medal at the ISSF World Cup in Osijek, Croatia, on Friday.
The trio - who have been named in the Indian shooting squad for Tokyo 2020 - beat Hungary 16-12 in the bronze medal playoff.
The Indian women’s pistol team took a comfortable 14-6 lead after the tenth series and needed only one more series win to secure the medal.
The Hungarians, though, hit back to win three series in a row and clawed the score back to 14-12. The Indian team then regained their composure in the 14th series, shooting 30.4 (10.0, 10.0, 10.4) against Hungary’s 29.8 (10.0, 9.8, 10.0) to clinch the bronze.
The medal provided some respite for both Manu Bhaker and Yashaswini Singh Deswal, who had made the individual women’s 10m air pistol final but did not end up on the podium.
Earlier, the Indian team had finished third in the qualifying round to set up the bronze medal match.
Bulgaria claimed gold, beating silver-medallists Germany.
No medal for rifle teams
The men’s air rifle team of Divyansh Singh Panwar, Deepak Kumar and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar fell just short of the bronze medal as they lost 16-14 to Serbia.
The Indian team finished third in qualification with 624.4 - just 0.2 short of second-placed Hungary’s 624.6 - to enter the bronze medal match.
The bronze medal playoff was tied at 14-14 going into the 15th series. Serbia then scored 29.7 (10.1, 10.6 and 9.0) while India could only manage 28.3 (9.4, 8.6 and 10.3) and conceded the bronze medal.
Of the three, only Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar had made the individual 10m Air Rifle men’s final but finished seventh.
Meanwhile, the women’s air rifle team of Apurvi Chandela, Anjum Moudgil and Elavenil Valarivan finished 11th in the first qualification round and could not progress further.
None of them had made the individual women’s 10m air rifle final on Thursday.
The lone Indian shooter in the individual men’s skeet event, Gurjoat Khangura finished 56th in the qualifying round with a score of 115 and could not make the final.