Manu Bhaker secures Air Pistol gold medal on last shot at ISSF Junior World Cup

Manu Bhaker secured glory for India on Saturday at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Sydney by winning the gold medal in individual 10m Air Pistol and then the team event.

In an intense matchup that went right down to the last shot, Bhaker edged Thailand’s Kanyakorn Hirunphoem for the glory. In so doing, she added to her gold medal won at the ISSF World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Incidentally, even in Mexico, Bhaker had won gold on the last shot. India tasted success in the 10m Air Pistol men’s event too with Gaurav Rana winning a silver medal while Anmol Jain bagged the bronze.

Bhaker finished with a total of 235.9 points while Hirunphoem — who previously wrote a new Qualification World Record with 576 points — took silver with 234.9.

The podium was then completed by People’s Republic of China’s Lu Kaiman who posted a score of 214.2.

The 16-year-old Bhaker lead the showdown by 2.2 points before firing six consecutive shots outside the 10th ring which put her one point behind Hirunphoem with two shots left.

At this crucial and nervous 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.

Bhaker, Devanshi Rana and Mahima Turhi Agrawal brought India on top of the team podium, while Xiao, Lu and Li Xue won silver for China. Thailand’s Hirunphoem, Luxciga Srinitivoravong and Warunyapha Kaewngoen took the team bronze.

In the men’s event, Rana finished with a score of 233.9 while Anmol registered 215.1 well behind the gold medallist Zhehao Wang’s tally of a junior world record 242.5.

Rana and Wang remained within 2.3 points with six shots to go but the Chinese shooter’s impressive showing thereafter with consecutive shots of 10.7 and 10.6 points put him in comfortable lead.

India are second in the medal’s tally with 11 medals while trailing China who have 13.

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