Shooting World Cup: Saurabh Chaudhary wins gold, sets world record in 10m Air Rifle; secures Olympic quota for India

Another gold for India ???? in New Delhi! #ISSFWC pic.twitter.com/icYGfLPMKT

— ISSF (@ISSF_Shooting) 24 February 2019

With a loud cheer from the home crowd, Saurabh began with a good start, making 51.2 in the first of the five series. Except one below-par shot, all his shots were above 10, taking the joint-top spot after the first five shots.

The Asian Games gold medallist then maintained his lead and after ten shots, Saurabh stood at the top with 102.2 points. With another 10.5 and 10.4, Saurabh increased his lead to 4.4 points.

The home crowd was ecstatic to see the 16-year old’s dominance as he increased his lead at the top to 4.8 points after 16 shots. He finally declared himself the winner with Damir Mikec taking the silver with 239.3 points. The bronze medal was bagged by Wei Pang of China, who managed 215.2.

“I was not thinking about the world record. If I had thought about making a record then it would not have been possible, neither was I thinking about the Olympic quota, I just wanted to give my best,” Saurabh said after the win.

“To win a medal in front of the home crowd, in my first senior World Cup was superb. The crowd was similar to the Asian Games,” the teenager said. “This being my first senior final, I felt the pressure in the morning. The competition was hard. I was aware of my lead but didn’t let it get to my head. I was not thinking about the quota, just wanted to give my best.”

Other Indians competing in the event, Abhishek Verma and Ravinder Singh, failed to qualify for the final. Both Abhishek are Ravinder finished with a total score of 576 in the qualification round. Chaudhary shot 19 scores above 10. The Indian also holds the world record in 10m air pistol event in the junior category and that is higher than the senior world record he made on Sunday.

Manu Bhaker finishes fifth

Manu Bhaker, however, could not add to India’s medal tally as she finished fifth in the Women’s 25m Pistol event. The Commonwealth Games gold-medallist was doing well, sitting at the second joint-position but a poor last series of shots saw her fall out of medal contention.

This ended her bid to get India their third medal. The 17-year old also missed out on an Olympic quota, which is given to the top two finishers in the final. Manu finished with a score of 22 before China’s Zhang and Iran’s Rostamiyan had three back-to-back shootouts for the bronze medal. Finally, Rostamiyan claimed the third position after Zhang missed a point.

“I tried my best. I don’t know what happened,” Manu said. “The support was great. There was no pressure I was just happy India is hosting the World Cup. l had some problems with my left arm till February 21 but now it’s fine. That is not the reason for my bad performance today,” said Manu, not making any excuses.

Not knowing why she has been faltering in the 25m, Manu added, “I do not know about the mistakes I committed right now. My monitor was on the other side so I couldn’t see it properly. My performance in 25m throughout last year has been 4th, 5th or 6th position. I don’t know what’s wrong,” she said. I am focussing on 10m now.”

Veronika Major of Hungary emerged the winner of the event with a World record score of 40 to claim her first World Cup gold.