Saurabh Chaudhary betters world record, Manu Bhaker impresses at shooting trials
The Tokyo-bound Chaudhary surpassed the world record mark to shoot 246.9 and bag the top spot in the 10m men's air pistol category
Talented young Indian shooters Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker registered impressive results in the T1 men’s and women’s 10m air pistol trials at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range in New Delhi.
The Tokyo-bound Chaudhary surpassed the world record mark to shoot 246.9 and bag the top spot in the 10m men's air pistol category. Though he achieved the score in trials, the performance would've done his confidence a world of good. The Meerut-shooter, all of 18 years old, will be hoping to replicate his form at the Olympics.
North Korea’s Kim Song Guk holds the official world record for the 10m air pistol event with a score of 246.5 at the Asian Championships in Doha in November 2019.
Incidentally, Chaudhary had recorded an impressive score of 246.3 at the ISSF World Cup in Munich in May 2019.
He first stepped into the limelight at the 2018 Asian Games when he bagged a gold medal in the competitive 10m air pistol category. There was no looking for the teenager, who has continued to scale new heights and booked his Tokyo Olympics berth with a gold medal at the 2019 ISSF World Cup in New Delhi.
At the on-going national trials in New Delhi, Chaudhary finished at the top spot as he shot 590 in the 60-shot qualification round to break his own national mark of 587 set in 2018. Amanpreet Singh and Shiva Narwal finished at the second and third spots respectively.
World No. 2 women's 10m air pistol shooter Bhaker was also impressive in her event. She shot 580 in the qualifying round before scoring 239.3 in the finals to clinch the top spot at the event, ahead of Tamil Nadu’s Shri Nivetha and UP’s Neha.
Bhaker, 18, had booked a berth for Tokyo Olympics after finishing fourth in the women’s 10m Air Pistol event at the ISSF World Cup in Munich in 2019.