ISSF World Cup 2022 Cairo: Indian shooters top medals tally

Indian shooters ended the ISSF World Cup 2022 in Cairo, Egypt with a total of seven, four gold, two silver and one bronze, medals.

With two medals on the final day on Monday, India topped the medals tally ahead of Norway, who won six medals - three gold, one silver and two bronze. France were third, with three golds out of the 20 on offer. 

Rhythm Sangwan and Anish Bhanwala won the 25m rapid fire pistol mixed team gold medal match 17-7 against Thailand in the last event of the ISSF World Cup.

Earlier in the day, the Indian trio of Gurpreet Singh, Anish Bhanwala and Bhavesh Shekhawat clinched a silver in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol team competition after losing to Germany 7-17 in the gold medal match.

Rhythm and Anish made it through to the gold medal match after finishing second in round two of qualification with a score of 370 out of 400. 

The Thai pair represented by Paduka Chawisa and Ram Khamhaeng had topped the stage with 381 to set up the title clash. 

Esha Singh and Bhavesh Shekhawat, the second Indian pair in the top eight, finished fifth with 356 points.

Earlier in the 10-team qualification stage one, Rhythm and Anish had topped the field over the Thais with a score of 566 out of 600, to Paduka and Ram’s 562 for second place. 

Esha and Bhavesh just made it through to the next round with a score of 539 for an eighth-place finish. 

In the final, where two points are awarded to the team with the highest cumulative score after each member has shot a 5-shot rapid fire series, Rhythm and Anish needed 12-rounds to cross the coveted 16-point mark required to win.

It was close initially with the scores reading 7-5 in India’s favour after the first six rounds. However, Rhythm and Anish did not lose any of the subsequent six rounds, splitting points in only two of them, to seal gold.

The men’s 25m rapid fire pistol team competition saw India taking on Germany in the gold medal match. The German team which had Rio Olympic champion Christian Reitz, besides Geis Oliver and Peter Florian, proved superior against Gurpreet Singh, Anish Bhanwala and Bhavesh Shekhawat. 

This was India’s second silver of the competition after Esha Singh’s individual silver in the women’s 10m air pistol.

Norway came overall second with three gold, one silver and two bronze medals while France were third with three golds out of the 20 on offer. A total of 22 countries won medals in the tournament.

Over 500 athletes from 60 nations had entered to take part in the Cairo World Cup.

ISSF World Cup 2022 in Cairo: Rifle and pistol India medal winners

Women’s 25m pistol team – gold (Rahi Sarnobat, Esha Singh and Rhythm Sangwan)

Men’s 10m air pistol - gold (Saurabh Chaudhary)

Women’s 10m air pistol team - gold (Esha Singh, Nivetha Paramanantham, Ruchira Vinerkar)

25m rapid fire pistol mixed team - gold (Rhythm Sangwan and Anish Bhanwala)

Women’s 10m air pistol event - silver (Esha Singh)

Men’s 25m rapid fire pistol team - silver (Gurpreet Singh, Anish Bhanwala and Bhavesh Shekhawat) 

50m rifle 3 positions mixed team event - bronze (Shriyanka Sadangi and Akhil Sheoran)