Youngster Samrat Rana clinched India’s maiden gold in an Olympic event, winning the 10m air pistol with a total of 243.7 points at the ISSF World Championships in Cairo on Monday while Varun Tomar won bronze to add two medals to India’s tally.
The 20-year old Rana, who earlier qualified for the final in top position, continued the momentum to continuously stay ahead of the field all through the final for his maiden medal at the senior level. In fact, Tomar stayed a close second for a long time before one bad shot of 9.6 in penultimate series saw him slip to third spot with 221.7 behind China’s Kai Hu, who finished on 243.3 points. Rana, Tomar and Sharvan Kumar also finished on top in the team event.
But there was disappointment in the women’s 10m air pistol with double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker finishing seventh and Esha Singh ending sixth. Manu, who started with a decent 50.3 for the first series of five shots, gradually slipped with several high nines before an 8.8 on her 14th shot saw her go out with a total of 139.5. Esha totalled 159.2.
China’s Qianxun Yao, who won the 50m pistol on the opening day, took her second gold of the competition with 243 points. Manu and Esha, along with Suruchi Singh, however, managed to finish second in the team event with a total of 1740 behind China, who set a new World record of 1752 points.