ISSF World Cup | Saurav Chaudhary wins gold, Manu Bhaker loses Olympic berth

ISSF World Cup | Saurav Chaudhary wins gold, Manu Bhaker loses Olympic berth

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Young Saurabh Chaudhary continued India’s gold fest in the World Cup being held in New Delhi as he created a world record scoring 245 in the 10m air pistol event. 17-year-old Manu Bhaker, on the other hand, finished fifth in the 25m pistol event as she lost her berth for the 2020 Olympics.

The stakes couldn’t get any higher for the Asian Games and Youth Olympics gold medallist as he was against some of the top seasoned campaigners. However, 16-year-old Chaudhary kept his nerves intact, finishing at the top to secure India’s third Olympic quota with a 5.7 point lead. Serbia’s Dami Mikec came second with a score of 239.3, while the 2008 Chinese Olympic champion Wei Pang came third tallying 215.2.

Chaudhary had finished third in the qualification round with scores of 587 (20x), behind 588 (27x) shot by Lee Daemyung of South Korea and 587 (23x) shot by Pang Wei. However, after the first series, he finished tied on top with Serbian Mikec and thereon continued his form without any fault whatsoever shooting 19 above 10. Last year, Chandela and Anjum Moudgil were the first two to secure Olympic quotas in the ISSF World Championships, which took place in Korea.

Apart from Chaudhary, Bhaker was the biggest hope for India but she could finish fifth in the Women’s 25m Pistol event. The CWG goal medalist was doing well initially sitting second before a poor series of shots saw her falling out of the medal contention. 

She had a score of 22, before China’s Zhang and Iran’s Rostamiyan having three back-to-back shootouts for the bronze medal. Eventually, Rostamiyan claimed the third position. The winner of the event was Hungary’s Veronika Major of Hungary with a World record score of 40 to as she claimed her first World Cup gold.

Indian shooters failed to get past the qualification round in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions event where Hungary’s Istvan Peni eventually claimed the gold medal. Parul Kumar was ranked 22nd in the qualification with a total score of 1170, while Sanjeev Rajput finished 25th with 1169.

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