Jitu Rai Takes Over Twitter With Record-Breaking Gold at CWG

President, PM, Sports minister, even actors and fellow sportspersons congratulated Rai on the gold.

(Photo: AP/altered by The Quint)

Jitu Rai broke the games record to claim the gold medal by some distance in men's 10m air pistol, underlining why he is rated as one of India's premier shooters, while Om Prakash Mitharval bagged bronze in the Commonwealth Games in Australia’s Gold Coast on Monday.

World Championship silver medallist Rai shot 235.1 to comfortably finish top of the podium. 

Mitharval, who had established a new qualification games record with 584, eventually finished with the bronze medal after aggregating 214.3 in the eight-man finals at the Belmont Shooting Centre.

Australia's Kerry Bell secured the silver medal with 233.5, having managed to topple Mitharval from the second position.

In the finals, Jitu started on a strong note and led with 100.4 at the end of stage 1, while Mitharval was third with 98.1.

In qualifying, Mitharval equalled the Commonwealth Games record of 584.

Mitharval had a series of 96 96 98 99 96 99, while Jitu’s sequence read a strong 98 to start with followed by 92 94 96 95 95.

In the finals though, the show belonged to Rai, a CWG gold medallist in 50m air pistol event four years ago in Glasgow and the 2016 World Cup Finals' 'Champion of Champions'.

In 2017, Jitu won four gold medals and a bronze at ISSF events and two bronze medals at the Commonwealth Shooting Championships.

People took to Twitter to congratulate the air pistol champion.

(With inputs from PTI.)