(Photo courtesy: ISSF) 16-year-old pistol shooter Manu Bhaker won a gold medal in the ISSF World Cup, which is currently underway in Guadalajara, Mexico. She recently earned a quota place for the Beunos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games scheduled for October and a gold at World cup event just betters the celebration.
Bhaker defeated home-favourite Alejandra Zavala Vazquez in the women’s 10m Air Pistol final. The 16 year old was up against experienced shooters of the world, but she prevailed by making phenomenal last two shots, to give India its second gold in the tournament.
Manu Bhaker finished with a final score of 237.5. Zavala ended with 237.1, winning silver 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.
Earlier, India’s Ravi Kumar shot bronze in 10m Air rifle event, giving India its fourth medal. He scored 226.4 points beating compatriot Deepak Kumar in a shoot-off for third and fourth place. Not to forget, 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.
Read: Shooting World Cup: Shahzar creates history on the opening day, Jitu and Mehuli win bronze.
Hungary’s Istvan Peni took the gold with a final shot of 10.6 after chasing Austria’s Alexander Schmiri, who took silver, for most part of the final.
India are placed at 5th position after end of the second day of the competition with two Gold medals and three bronze
National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Raninder Singh was ecstatic with the performance and 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.”
