Changwon [South Korea], July 16: Junior world champion Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, all of 21, struck gold in the Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) event beating Hungarian Zakan Pekler 16-12 in the gold medal match on competition day seven of the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun stage in Changwon, Korea.
This was the youngster’s second ISSF World Cup gold and India’s fourth of the competition, helping them hold on to the top spot in the standings.
After showing incredible form in topping the qualifiers on Friday, Aishwary made it a wire-to-wire performance, also topping the ranking round early on Saturday morning with a score of 409.8 to make the decider. Pekler shot 406.7 to join him.
In the final Pekler did put up a good challenge but Aishwary was always ahead and in control and brought out the big shots when it mattered to close out like a pro.
India missed out on another medal as Manu Bhaker finished fourth in the Women’s 25m Pistol after shooting extremely well to make it to the medal round. Her first task in the morning was to qualify for the ranking matches and she shot a steady rapid-fire round of 293 to qualify seventh with an overall effort of 581.
She then topped her four-woman ranking round missing just two shots across the four 5-shot series. Her score of 18 was four better than Singaporean Teh Xiu Hong who followed her through to eventually win gold.
Law of averages probably caught up with Manu in the medal round as she became the first to be eliminated in fourth place with just nine hits to her name after the fourth five-shot series.
In more good news coming in, Anjum Moudgil has qualified in sixth place for the ranking round of the Women’s 3P with a score of 586 in the qualifiers. The finals are on Sunday.
India currently leads the medal tally with four gold, four silver and one bronze medal. (Agencies)
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