ISSF World Cup 2023 Cairo: Varun Tomar opens India’s account, bags 10m air pistol bronze medal
Manu Bhaker came fifth in the ranking round of women’s 10m air pistol and missed out on a medal. Know opening day results of Indian shooters.
Shooting
India’s Varun Tomar won a bronze medal in the men's 10m air pistol event at the ISSF World Cup 2023 for rifle and pistol shooters in Cairo on Sunday.
The 19-year-old Indian shooter defeated compatriot Sarabjot Singh in a shoot-off for his first senior ISSF World Cup medal after the two were tied for third place with 250.6 points in the ranking round. Slovakia’s Juraj Tuzinsky, with 254.2 points, and Italy’s Paolo Monna, with 252.8 points, came first and second, respectively, in the ranking round.
Juraj Tuzinsky beat Paolo Monna 17-15 in the gold medal match to clinch top podium.
Earlier, in the 64-man qualification round, Varun Tomar scored 583 points to come second behind Juraj Tuzinsky (585). Sarabjot Singh came fifth to make the eight-man ranking round.
Sumit Raman, Arjun Singh Cheema, Tinjit Dhanota - the other three Indians competing in the 10m air pistol event - could not make it to the top eight. Sumit Raman scored 570 to come 45th in the qualification.
Arjun Singh Cheema and Tinjit Dhanota, who were competing for the ranking points only (RPO), scored 568 and 565, respectively. While Arjun Singh Cheema claimed the 49th position, Tinjit Dhanota came 52nd.
Later in the day, Esha Singh, a silver medallist at the 2021 ISSF Junior World Championships, claimed second place in the women’s 10m air pistol qualification round with an impressive score of 577 points. Anna Korakaki of Greece, a Rio 2016 gold medallist in women’s 25m pistol, topped the qualification with 585 points.
Manu Bhaker came eighth in the qualification round and narrowly made it to the ranking round with Divya Thadigol Subbaraju, who came third. However, with a score of 198.6, Manu Bhaker managed fifth place in the ranking round and could not win a medal. Divya Thadigol Subbaraju came seventh with a score of 146.7.
Esha Singh didn’t compete in the ranking round as she was competing for ranking points only.
Yashaswini Singh Deswal, who was also competing under RPO, came 13th in the qualification with a score of 571. Rhythm Sangwan finished 23rd with a score of 568 and could not make it to the ranking round.
Hungary’s Veronika Major defeated Zorana Arunovic of Serbia 16-6 to claim the gold medal in women’s 10m air pistol. The ISSF World Cup 2023 in Cairo will conclude on February 23.