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Journalism of Courage
Teenager Suruchi Singh Phogat prevailed in a strong field, featuring several Olympic medallists, to win the women’s 10m air pistol title at the ISSF World Cup Final in Doha on Saturday.
It was double delight for India as compatriot Sainyam Vij took the silver, ensuring there was an Indian 1-2 at the season finale.
Suruchi, 19, emerged victorious against quality shooters like double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker, Paris Olympic champion Oh Ye-jin of Korea, Tokyo Olympics mixed team champion and individual bronze medallist Jiang Ranxin and world number one Yao Qianxun of China.
“She wanted to end the year on a high with a gold medal in the World Cup final and that’s what she did today,” Suruchi’s father Inder Singh Phogat told The Indian Express.
The gold came after she missed out on the final at the World Championships, but the youngster made amends quickly. The Haryana shooter had won the first of her ISSF World Cup titles in Buenos Aires followed by ones in Lima and Munich. She missed the edition in Ningbo, China, but competed in her first World Championships in Cairo.
On Saturday, Suruchi scored 586 to top the qualification round along with Chinese Qian Wei. In the final, where she was placed fourth after the second series with Sainyam on top with a lead of 2.1 ahead of Ye-jin and Qianxun in third spot, Suruchi would slowly get into medal contention. She would get to the second spot after the first elimination series with Sainyam leading by 2.7 points and Qianxun in third spot.
With the next three elimination series seeing Jiang, Uruguay’s Mautone Jimenez and Bhaker, Suruchi would narrow the lead between her and Sainyam to 1.4 points with Qianxun trailing her by 3.7 and Ye-jin in fourth spot.
Over the next six shots, Suruchi would hit two only shots below 10 and two in excess of 10.5, including a 10.9, with Sainyam hitting three shots of 9.5. Ye-jin bowed out in fourth spot and Qianxun in third as Suruchi maintained her top spot till the end, setting a junior world record score of 245.1 in the process.
“All medals are big, Whether it’s the World Cup final or any other competition. The 8.8 in the second series was bad but I did not let my mind think about it even for one shot and knew that my competition was only against myself,” Suruchi told The Indian Express.
For 21-year-old Sainyam, it was her first senior international final. The Chandigarh youngster, who started shooting after seeing her brother Akarshan Vij train, had chosen the sport over her earlier aspiration to become a doctor.
She had qualified for the season finale on the basis of world rankings and scrapped into the final after being tied for eighth spot with a score of 573 with Camile Jedrzejewski, edging out the French shooter on the basis of more inner 10s. The Chandigarh teenager had only two shots below 10 in her first 16 in the final before letting her lead slip.
“I knew my qualification did not go well but then I took the confidence of having hit more inner 10s in the final. I knew that I could do well in the final. I could have won the gold here but that’s shooting. I was not nervous. This final was a great learning experience,” Sainyam told The Indian Express.
National coach Ankush Bhardwaj shared how Suruchi gained confidence from the last shots in the training session and recovered after the 8.8 in the final.
“Suruchi did not have a very good training session but her last 15-20 shots yesterday were very good. So we told her to take that confidence into qualification. When she shot a 8.8, her overall groupings were good and we knew she could catch up since her finals scores have always been very good,” Bhardwaj said.
Samresh Jung, chief pistol coach of the Indian team, sees the two medals in a highly competitive field as the biggest takeaways. “World Cup Finals sees the best shooters of the year based on form as well as rankings. It was almost an all-Asian final with three Indians and three Chinese. To win the gold and silver here will do Suruchi and Sainyam’s confidence a lot of good,” said Jung.
Meanwhile, world champion Samrat Rana claimed the bronze medal in the men’s 10m air pistol final with compatriot Varun Tomar finishing fourth. Earlier in the day, Rudrankksh Patil and Arjun Babuta finished fourth and sixth respectively in the men’s 10m air rifle final.
