ISSF Junior World Cup | Manu Bhaker secures 10m Air Pistol gold on the last shot

In an intense matchup that went right down to the last shot, Manu Bhaker edged past Thailand’s Kanyakorn Hirunphoem for the glory. In doing so, she secured India’s second individual gold at the ISSF Junior World Cup. Incidentally, even in Mexico, Bhaker had won gold on the last shot.

The 16-year-old shooter overtook Hirunphoem on the very last shot, adding the Junior World Cup gold medal to the one she had won earlier this month at the ISSF World Cup in Guadalajara (MEX).

Bhaker finished with a total of 235.9 points while Hirunphoem — who previously created a new qualification world record with 576 points — took silver with 234.9. The podium was then completed by China's Lu Kaiman, who posted a score of 214.2. After leading the match by as much as 2.2 points, Bhaker fired six consecutive shots outside the 10th ring, which saw her one point behind Hirunphoem with only two shots left. At this crucial juncture, Bhaker did just about enough with shots of 9.6 and 9.8 to overtake her rival, who dropped her game when it mattered with a final shot of 7.9.

On the other hand, in an impressive display in the final of men's 10m air pistol event, India tasted success with Gaurav Rana winning a silver medal while Anmol Jain grabbed the bronze. Arjun Singh Cheema (152.7), Anhad Jawanda (134.4) and Abhishek Arya 114.5) finished 6th, 7th and 8th respectively.

India's Cheema, Rana and Anmol also pocketed the team gold, beating Liu, Wang and Tang -- who claimed silver for China -- and Jawanda, Arya and Adarsh Singh who won bronze for India. India are second in the medal’s tally with 12 medals while trailing China who have 14.