Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar won the men’s rifle 3-position gold while Chinki Yadav beat Rahi Sarnobat and Manu Bhaker for the women’s sports pistol gold in the World Cup at the Dr. Karni Singh Range on Wednesday.
Even though Anjum Moudgil and company failed to make the women’s rifle 3-position final, India was sitting pretty on top of the medals table with nine gold, five silver and five bronze. The US followed a distant second with three gold, two silver and a bronze.
The 20-year-old Aishwary beat a strong field and pushed world No. 1 Istvan Peni to the silver by 0.9 point. Aishwary said he had aimed for the gold and coach Suma Shirur said that the young boy was a ‘natural talent’ and was making ‘rapid progress’.
The gold in an event in which Olympian Sanjeev Rajput finished sixth, should strengthen Aishwary’s claim on the Olympic quota that he had won.
In women’s sports pistol, Chinki was brilliant as she beat Asian Games gold medallist Rahi 4-3 in the shoot-off, after the two were tied 32-32.
Nosing ahead
Rahi picked herself up after a poor start to nose ahead of Manu Bhaker, who had two bad series in the final.
With the three pronged race in the event for the Olympics, Chinki’s gold could help her retain the Olympic quota. She had scored the second best in qualification with 580, one point behind Rahi.
The results: Men: 50m rifle 3-position: 1. Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar 462.5 (1165); 2. Istvan Peni (Hun) 461.6 (1169); 3. Steffen Olsen (Den) 450.9 (1165); 6. Sanjeev Rajput 413.3 (1172); 8. Niraj Kumar 400.3 (1165). MQS: Swapnil Kusale 1165; Chain Singh 1159.
Women: 25m sports pistol: 1. Chinki Yadav 32(4) 580; 2. Rahi Sarnobat 32(3) 581; 3. Manu Bhaker 28 (576). MQS: Abhidnya Patil 586; Neeraj Kaur 568.
50m rifle 3-position: 1. Ziva Dvorsak (Slo) 457.1 (1170); 2. Nina Christen (Sui) 455.1 (1171); 3. Aneta Stankiewicz (Pol) 443.5 (1179); 12. Tejaswini Sawant 1164; 16. Anjum Moudgil 1162; 17. Sunidhi Chauhan 1161. MQS: Gaayathri Nithyanandam 1159; Shreya Saksena 1157.
