Sixteen-year-old Manu Bhaker overcame a 1.4 point deficit on the last shot to win the Women’s 10m Air Pistol gold at the first International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup stage in Mexico’s Guadalajara on Sunday.
Bhaker, who recently earned a quota place for the Beunos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games, ended strongly to beat home favourite Alejandra Zavala, a two-time World Cup Finals winner.
The shooter from Haryana hit a 10.6 while Zavala hit a lowly 8.8 to give the gold medal to the Indian with a final score of 237.5. Zavala ended with 237.1 while Celine Goberville of France won the Bronze with a score of 217.0. India’s Yashaswini Singh Deswal missed out on a medal, finishing fourth with 196.1.
At the end of day two of the competition, India’s medal tally stands at five with two Gold medals and three bronze, the last one coming in the 10m Air Rifle event. Shahzar Rizvi and Jitu Rai had won gold and bronze in the Men’s 10M Air Pistol and Mehuli Ghosh won bronze in the Women’s 10M Air Rifle on the first day of competitions on Saturday.
Ravi Kumar added another bronze to the medal tally on Sunday in the 10m Air Rifle event before Bhaker ended the day with a gold.
Bhaker had shot a junior qualifying world record score of 572 to qualify in fifth position while Deswal shot 571 to make it to the eight-woman final in seventh place.
“I am extremely happy at winning Gold, especially as this is my first World Cup. I look forward to perform even better in upcoming competitions,Manu Bhaker
Speaking on the great start to the new season of international shooting sport, National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Raninder Singh, said, “This is a dream start. The young guns and future of Indian shooting are firing on all cylinders and let us only hope that these are signs of even better things to come in the near future. Manu showed excellent composure for one so young and Ravi’s consistency over the past year or so has also been heartening to watch. We are now hungry for more.”
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