ISSF World Cup: India makes new record as Chinki Yadav leads sweep in 25m women’s pistol
Chinki Yadav beat Rahi Sarnobat and Manu Bhaker to gold in the 25m pistol. India now has nine gold medals, the most of any country in a single ISSF World Cup.
Indian shooters continued their successful run in the pistol events as Chinki Yadav beat Rahi Sarnobat in a shoot-off to win the 25m women’s pistol gold medal at the ISSF World Cup in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The highly fancied Manu Bhaker completed an all-Indian podium at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range. All three shooters have won quota places for the Tokyo Olympics.
It was the first time that India has made a clean sweep in any category at the ISSF World Cup.
It was a fourth medal of this ISSF World Cup for 19-year-old Manu Bhaker. She had earlier won golds in the 10m Air Pistol mixed Team, 10m Air Pistol women’s team and a silver in the 10m Air Pistol women’s events.
Chinki Yadav, 23, had led for most of the final, hitting perfect scores in two of the ten series.
However, she missed three shots in the final series, which allowed the experienced Rahi Sarnobat to draw level at 32 shots. It forced a shoot-off to decide the gold medal.
In the five-shot shoot-off series, Chinki Yadav and Rahi Sarnobat scored three shots apiece of the first four.
With top honours hinging on the final shot, Chinki Yadav held her nerves to hit her target while Rahi Sarnobat missed, giving the former a deserved victory.
It was India’s ninth gold medal of this ISSF World Cup.
Aishwary Tomar shoots gold in 50m Rifle 3P
Earlier, Indian shooter Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar began the day by winning gold in the men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions.
It was India’s eighth gold medal of this ISSF World Cup – making it the new record for most golds won by a nation in a single edition of the ISSF World Cup.
Aishwary Tomar, 20, led the charts after the Kneeling series (155) but fell behind (310.5) Denmark’s Steffen Olsen (311.4) after the Prone series.
The young Indian then dominated the Standing series, jumping to the top after the first series of 10 shots, and then stayed ahead throughout to confirm the gold medal.
Hungarian Istvan Peni won silver while Steffen Olsen took bronze.
The two other Indians in the final of the men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions, two-time Olympian Sanjeev Rajput finished sixth while Niraj Kumar ended eighth.
India still leads the medals tally with 19 - nine golds, five silvers and five bronze medals.
Lead photo: NRAI/Twitter