ISSF World Cup | Abhishek Verma clinches gold in 10m air pistol, secures Olympic quota

In his first ever appearance in a World Cup final, Verma has managed to grab a gold medal as he finished at the top of the list in the 10m air pistol event at the ongoing global event in China. He had a lead throughout the final and maintained his concentration to leave behind his opponents from Russia and Korea who finished second and third respectively. After 16 shots in the final round, Verma was with 162.3 points. The Indian shooter ended with 242.7 points while Russia’s Artem Chernousov and Korea’s Seungwoo Han had to settle with silver and bronze medals respectively in the final standings of the event.

Verma had earlier shot 585 in the qualifiers and finished fourth to book a place in the finals. Two other Indians Shahzar Rizvi and Arjun Singh Cheema finished 32nd and 54th respectively and failed to make it to the final round. With this brilliant show in China, Verma has earned the ticket to Japan’s capital for the 2020 Olympics. This is India’s second quota place for the Olympics in two days as yesterday Divyansh Singh Panwar also made it to the Olympics by winning a silver in the 10m air rifle event at the same tournament.

Apart from the individual silver, Panwar had also won a gold medal in the 10 m air rifle mixed team event partnering with Anjum Moudgil. Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary had managed to clinch gold in the 10 m air pistol mixed team event as well in this ISSF World Cup. With three gold and one silver, India has four medals in the competition now.